


The Heretofore Untold Story of the Greatest Wrestlemania in the Kingdom of Pinfall

by holy_text



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Gen, Podcast, Podfic, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:55:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25258060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holy_text/pseuds/holy_text
Summary: PODFIC. Magic! Mayhem! Steel chairs! Unicorns!
Kudos: 2





	1. It's A New Day! Yes, It Is!

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Kingdom of Pinfall](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/648274) by Michelle the Archivist of Pinfall. 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some heroes are preparing for a journey when a visitor arrives with a message.

[Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-1-Its-A-New-Day--Yes--It-Is-egf512)

Kofi artfully wields two huge plates stacked high with pancakes and maneuvers gracefully around the furniture to cross the room. He slides one plate onto the nearest end of the long table. He then does a careful twirl resembling a pirouette all the way to the opposite end of the table while steadily balancing the second plate. He places it down as well and then begins to twerk.

On the other side of the room, everyone goes silent and looks at him, turning away from the droning television set. He stops mid-twerk and looks toward the kitchen. He calls back in the direction he came from, “Woods, where’s the music? I’m out here twerking without music again.”

There is no answer and his brow furrows deeply as he frowns slightly.

“Pancakes. What a surprise. Didn’t expect Kofi to bring out pancakes at all,” Mandy mumbles from her seat on the sofa, turning back toward the TV and sinking into the cushions, having accepted this fate.

“Did I hear someone speak of pancakes in a dejected tone?” Big E’s voice bellows from the kitchen and is followed promptly by a loud _wah-wah-waaaaaaah_ from Francesca the trombone.

Kofi’s eyes widen as he deftly grabs a pancake from the nearest plate and hurls it toward the back of Mandy’s head. It hits its mark with a soft smacking noise then falls to the floor with a gentle plop. Mandy reaches back and touches her hair, then does nothing more. Sonya stands and points a finger angrily at Kofi. He throws his hands up immediately in surrender. Tucker watches the scene unfold, apathetically.

Mandy grabs Sonya’s wrist, pulling her arm back down to her side.

“There’s ham. There’s ham. Here’s the ham,” Otis emerges from the kitchen, talking excitedly and carrying a steaming ham. “Ooh, yeah.”

The tension in the room dissipates with the appearance of food other than pancakes. After sitting the ham down, Otis licks his lips and gazes at it longingly for several seconds. He wrings his hands together and looks almost like he doesn’t want to leave it until he sees the pancake on the floor. He snatches it up and crushes it in his fist.

“Don’t eat that,” Mandy attempts to say, but it’s too late.

He blushes with the entirety of the pancake already in his mouth. He looks away from her, embarrassed, and scurries back into the kitchen.

Tucker gives her a shrug.

In the kitchen, Otis throws an apron on and begins moving rapidly between pots and pans on the stove, checking on various other dishes. Xavier is sitting on the counter, observing pensively, and occasionally droning out a note or two on the trombone as E follows behind Otis to gather dishes.

All of the curtains are drawn and rain patters on the windows.

Otis brings out each dish and announces every single thing with more excitement than the last, removing his apron and putting it back on each time as well.

“Sautéed asparagus! In butter! Pan-seared salmon! Lemon zest and parsley garnish! Stir-fried broccoli! With avocado sauce! Wild mushroom ravioli! Yeah!”

After completing all of these trips, he returns to the kitchen, points at Big E with both of his meaty hands, and says, “Time for the shakes! Make the shakes! Extra-protein protein shakes!”

Big E points back at him in the same manner, grinning wildly. He begins pulling ingredients from the refrigerator and cabinets and piling them next to the food processor – kale, spinach, eggs, blueberries, a mango, peanut butter, chia seeds, almonds, beets.

“Do a thing, Woodsy,” Otis then points to Xavier.

Xavier, who has been uncharacteristically quiet during the dinner prep process, jumps down from the counter as E begins grinding up assorted foods and thrusting his pelvis around to music only he can hear. He begins pressing the blend button on the mixer to the rhythm of his vaguely inappropriate dance and Otis joins in as well, shaking his stomach while wiping down the counters. Xavier is sucked into the dance as he pulls glasses out of the cabinet and lines them up for E to pour the shakes into.

It starts raining a bit harder as he and E prepare to bring out the rainbow of protein shakes. There are orange shakes, green shakes, purple shakes, red shakes, and creamy beige – something for everyone!

“Don’t you dare be sour!” Big E shouts in his typical jovial voice as the three of them emerge from the kitchen. “Clap for your world-famous, extra-protein protein shakes made by yours truly, Big E, and feel the power!”

“The power belly!” Otis adds, tapping out a rhythmic pattern on his gut, which sounds a lot like a bongo.

Kofi and Tucker both clap - per Big E’s request and they try to make everyone else join in. Mandy laughs slightly and shakes her head. Sonya, on the other hand, groans and covers her face with her arm then says, “We’ve done this same routine every night.”

Xavier leans between her and Mandy, playing a long, low note on Francesca.

“We ride at dawn, Ms. Deville,” Big E says to her formally and hands her a green protein shake. “Routines provide comfort and normalcy. Normalcy!”

“The man has a point,” Kofi agrees, solemnly. Then his demeanor shifts again, and he twerks over to Big E and the extra-protein protein shakes. He grabs one and raises it high, “Now it’s time for a toast!”

“Guys, no amount of routine will make anything about this situation normal,” Mandy points out, feeling like she needs to remind them all of this. She isn’t mad, she’s merely being informative.

“You also have a point,” Kofi agrees with her as well. “Now, toast!” He says again with glee.

Everyone stands. Otis squeezes into the group next to Mandy, as Sonya watches him carefully. He bumps into Mandy, becomes flustered, and Mandy either doesn’t mind or doesn’t notice. Woods looks thoughtful again. They raise their glasses to toast and there is a roll of thunder in the distance before anyone can say what exactly it is they’re toasting.

“That was weird timing,” Mandy comments as they clink their shakes together.

There are some shrugs and mumbles, but they’re interrupted by Otis saying, “Feast time! Ooh, yeah! Toast to the feast! Let’s eat!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice, buddy,” Tucker moves toward the table where the huge spread of food has been carefully laid out for the seven of them.

“This is an awful lot of food,” Kofi states the glaringly obvious fact.

“We’ll need rations for the journey,” Otis responds with a serious nod.

Tucker watches Xavier as he lingers back and peaks between the curtains of one of the windows. His brow is knitted tightly. There is nothing beyond the window aside from rain and darkness, but he peers outside anyway. Tucker asks him, “What’s gotten into you, Woods?”

He answers, “I have a strange feeling. It’s hard to explain. Like, something is about to happen.”

“That’s always the case though, isn’t it?” Kofi joins in, having been listening. “Something is always about to happen all the time. It’s the nature of…somethings…and happenings.” Kofi rubs his temples, “You know what I mean, man.”

“Are all of the doors locked?” Sonya then asks. “Not being paranoid or anything, but just in case.”

He nods. “It’s not a bad feeling. Just…impending?”

“Doom?” Big E questions, his eyes wide.

“No, not doom,” Xavier clarifies quickly. “I said it wasn’t a bad feeling.”

“Maybe you’re just hungry,” Tucker suggests. “You look hungry.”

“Feast,” Otis tells him. It’s less of an invite this time and more of an imperative. “For your strength and constitution, Woodsy.”

Mandy then chimes in and wants a bit of reassurance, “No one else knows we’re here, right? Just Alexa and Nikki. We haven’t recruited anyone new and none of us have accidentally let slip that this is where we’re meeting?”

Everyone in the group confirms that they did not reveal their location at any point.

Xavier comments, “This storm is probably going to slow them down more.”

As if to show support of this theory, thunder rumbles more closely.

“Spooky,” Mandy says then.

Sonya elbows her and whispers, “I don’t think you’re helping.”

“It was a joke,” she whispers back. “Sorry. It’s just a storm.”

They all take their plates back to their seats around the TV which has been playing a three-day marathon of a cop procedural and they’ve been watching it all three days, so they can’t stop now. Woods joins and seems to relax slightly but tenses up each time there is thunder.

“Let’s play a game,” Tucker says to the group to break the silence.

“I second that,” Big E agrees.

“Yes, game,” Otis mumbles through a slice of ham as he sits down between Mandy and Sonya on the couch. Sonya shoots him a glare. He mumbles quickly, “Sorry.”

“Feats of Strength!” E announces and stands.

“That’s not even a game,” Kofi tells him. “And we can’t play that while we eat.”

He is ignored and E flexes his pecs then points, “I will lift this recliner while eating.”

A deafening rumble of thunder shakes the house and the lights flicker then there is a perfectly timed knock at the door. They emit a collective gasp and Sonya drops her fork. Worried glances are quickly exchanged, and Sonya mumbles what everyone is thinking as she reaches for her fork and grips it in her fist, “One of us told someone and now they’ve found us.”

Everyone freezes for a moment, sitting still, waiting for another knock. Maybe the storm just blew a branch and it clattered into the front door. The knock comes again, an erratic series of five knocks. It’s not the secret knock to identify allies – not even close.

“Get your weapons,” Tucker tells them all, taking charge. He moves silently and swiftly toward the entrance and picks up his short sword from next to the coat rack as he reaches for the first lock to unbolt the door.

The lights flicker again and remain off this time, casting them all in shadow. A flash of lightning illuminates the silhouette of the uninvited visitor outside – it is a cloaked figure, unrecognizable.

Everyone quietly puts down their plates and stands. Xavier clutches Francesca and E reaches for the huge war hammer he keeps under the couch. Mandy stands and snaps her fingers, summoning a twisted wand from across the room. It zips through the air, tumbling end over end, and it hits Kofi in the forehead as it passes.

“Whoops,” she says as she catches it and it begins to glow. “It’s dark. I can’t see.” He clutches his head with one hand and stumbles into E, who props him upright and pats him on the shoulder with his free hand.

Sonya pulls daggers from her boots, crouching down and becoming nearly invisible. There is a low growl as Otis drops to all fours and turns into a hulking, shaggy, blonde grizzly bear. He shakes his giant head, slinging foamy bear spit onto the wall. He pads across the floor to stand behind Tucker just as he is unbolting the final lock. He yanks the door open and it slams into the doorstop with a loud bang and he raises his sword. Everyone is poised to attack.

The lights snap back on and the figure exclaims from beneath the hood of the drenched cloak, “Y’all let me in! It’s real wet out here!” Then he notices all of the weapons pointed in his general direction and he exclaims again, “Damn! Ok! I’ll stay out here then!”

Otis plops down onto his haunches and Tucker lowers his sword. He lets out a sigh and utters simply, “R-Truth.”

“R-Truth,” everyone then mumbles, sheathing their weapons and putting them down to pick up their plates again.

“Who told him where to find us?” Tucker asks and no one confesses.

Otis trundles back toward the couch, returning to his human form as he does so. Only Xavier remains interested in R-Truth as he enters the house. After locking all seven of the locks on the door, Tucker also returns to his seat and his meal. He turns the television back on and locates the cop show after thumbing through the channels.

“Good to see you, Truth,” Xavier says to him pleasantly enough, but he’s looking him over closely, mistrustfully. “Were you followed?”

“Nah. I’m stealthy like a wild giraffe roaming the savannah. Ducking and dodging. Serpentine.” His eyes then wander to the selection of food and he completely loses his train of thought and says, “Aw. You made me dinner. How’d you know I was coming?”

“We didn’t. How’d you know we were here?”

“The Queen sent me,” he says this as if the answer is obvious and he’s confused about why he’s even being asked. He re-focuses again on the food, his raggedy brown cloak leaving a trail of water from the door all the way to the table.

“Which Queen?” Xavier interrogates.

Truth answers, “Yeah.”

“Which Queen?” Xavier repeats his question.

“Yes! Exactly!” R-Truth answers louder, annoyed by having to answer a second time.

“No, he means which queen sent you?” Kofi tries to help, again listening to the conversation.

Truth turns and looks at them both, removing the hood from his head and then adjusting his headband, “I said ‘Yes.’ Y’all got a carbon monoxide leak or something in here? You gone deaf?”

Kofi has another go, “Nah, which queen? The Queen of Hearts? The Queen of Spa-”

Truth cuts him off frustratedly, “ _The_ Queen. Charlotte. The Witch-Queen.”

“Oh,” everyone says in unison. Then Mandy comments, “That’s weird on a number of levels.”

“No kidding.” Woods turns back to Truth, getting between him and the food, “How did she know we were here?”

He shrugs and then side-steps Xavier to approach the table, “Sorcery? I don’t know. I don’t mess with that magical stuff. Freaks me out.”

“Ok…” He pauses briefly and then asks, “ _Why_ did she send you?”

“She’s got a message for you,” he again answers like he has no idea why Xavier and company are confused. He thinks they prepared dinner for him after all, so they were clearly expecting him.

Everyone waits for him to give them said message. Tucker munches on carrot slices noisily in anticipation. Truth pays them no mind and makes no effort whatsoever to relay the message, instead he begins hovering his hands over the different foods on the table, wiggling his fingers and he ponders what to eat first.

“What’s the message?” Sonya is the one to give in and prompt him.

“I can’t remember on an empty stomach.” He continues to study the food, “Y’all are sure being pushy. You’re acting like it’s the end of the world or something. Charlotte too. She was all, ‘You gotta get there fast, Truth. You gotta stay hidden, Truth. Don’t lose your belt, Truth.’ Everyone’s putting a lot of pressure on me, you know? Let me have five minutes of peace and eat. I’ve been traveling for days.”

“You do still have the belt, right?” Xavier asks.

“What belt?” He shoves several stalks of asparagus into a folded pancake like it’s a taco.

“The 24/7 Belt of Power,” he speaks to him with dire urgency and forces Francesca toward Kofi. He then grabs R-Truth by his shoulders. He shakes him violently, speaking loudly and very slowly, “Tell me you still have the belt, Truth!”

“Oh, yeah. I still got that one. It’s under this cloak. I’m in disguise.” He pours a light drizzling of a protein shake on top of his pancake and asparagus taco while being shaken. Miraculously, he doesn’t get anything on the floor. Before taking a bite, he tells them, “Everyone keeps grabbing me by the shoulders, shaking me, and yelling at me lately too.”

~~~~~

It began with the forging of the Belts of Power. The twenty-three belts were given to the greatest heroes of the Four Realms of Pinfall to aid them against the Forces of Evil in the First Wrestlemania. For within these belts was bound ancient magic capable of opening and closing gates between worlds, between time and space, and bending reality itself, giving the holders of the belts immense power. The Champions, as they came to be called, were gods among mortals with the abilities granted to them by the Belts of Power. They were meant to keep the belts safe, use their magic for good and in turn, protect the Kingdom of Pinfall whenever the Forces of Evil returned and brought a Wrestlemania upon the earth.

But time passed and the belts changed hands. They were won and lost, not always honorably, and their greatest secrets were forgotten. The Forces of Evil were quiet, biding their time while they grew stronger than before, and there seemed to be no more Wrestlemanias to threaten the Kingdom of Pinfall.

Or so the stories went…

History became legend. Legend became myth, and the Belts became little more than shallow symbols of their once great power, squabbled over by those wanting to be called Champions. The truth was lost, forgotten, altered.

That is until one day, when chance came, and two Belts of Power fell into the possession of a certain Champion that only by accident tapped into the ancient magic, beginning the fulfillment of a long-forgotten prophecy.

For hundreds of years, high atop the tallest spire of the Titan Tower, sitting on a throne made of gold, adorned in diamonds and skulls, the Artisan of the Belts and Titan of Pinfall watched as the gifts he made to protect Pinfall were squandered and their great magic remained dormant. He was amused for a while, watching the mortals fight amongst themselves over the incomprehensibly powerful artifacts that they never properly utilized. He watched as the Four Realms forgot their alliances of old and began warring between one another as well, tearing apart the kingdom. He watched still as the belts began corrupting the Champions. He watched constantly and eventually he closed the gates of his palace, locking himself in his throne room to watch without being disturbed, obsessed with the progression of his creations and constantly needing to thrust his hand into their existence.

After a time, the Artisan’s amusement turned into resentment. He resented the commoners and so-called Champions alike. He began to desire the coming of a Wrestlemania. He desired the Wrestlemania to end all Wrestlemanias, the Great Wrestlemania, the Last Wrestlemania, the Wrestlemania of the Apocalypse. He knew the time approached that he would need to call upon the Forces of Evil again. Either heroes would emerge and put a stop to the destruction, redeeming humanity as they had done in the past, or the Forces of Evil would overrun the earth and put an end to his suffering. He sought a powerful Champion to do his bidding, one he could manipulate, that could harness the power of a belt and call upon the sleeping demons, but no one was quite good enough for this final story he had concocted. No one would work for this twisted task conceived in his clouded mind.

Then on that day, when chance came, when those two particular belts were brought together by that particular Champion at that particular moment, an ancient magical seal was broken and a crack was created between Pinfall and Heel, the home of the Forces of Evil. The Forces of Evil were stirred from their slumber and not by the Titan of Pinfall this time. The Great Artisan clapped his hands gleefully, cackling. The Champion was not one he had expected, not even one he had considered, but he cackled no less – he would make this work. He cackled until his eyes watered and all of the other Titans and heavenly beings could hear his mirth raining down on them from the prison of his own making.

He whispered to the demons, he told them to defeat the weak Champions, take the belts, steal the belts, cheat and win the belts, and open all of the Heelgates, open every portal, bring doom upon all of Pinfall. He even told them how to do it. They did as they were told by the mysterious deity, infiltrating the ranks of the Champions, winning over the commoners, questing for the Belts of Power so they could bring forth a monumental Wrestlemania.

By the time some of the Champions realized the rumors about the Forces of Evil were true, realized the Wrestlemanias of olde were not a myth, thought that perhaps the Belts of Power really were magical vessels that could bestow godlike powers upon their bearers if they could just figure out how to use them - all hope seemed lost.

And that is exactly why everyone keeps grabbing R-Truth by the shoulders, shaking him, and yelling at him.


	2. Watch Out For The Green Mist!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The messenger relays his message, but will it be helpful to our heroes?

[Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-2-Watch-Out-For-The-Green-Mist-eh1nj5)

In another part of the Realm of SmackDown, not too far away, a forest sprite and her traveling companion, a barbarian berserker, are seeking shelter from the same storm pummeling the New Day’s safehouse. The two come upon a hotel. The neon sign protruding up above the trees is flashing “VACANCY” in a very tempting manner through the downpour.

“They said not to let anyone see us, Blissy,” the sprite’s companion reminds her in a thick Scottish accent, seeing her stop and gaze up at the sign.

“It’s fine,” she insists. “No one will recognize us. We’re in the middle of nowhere, way off of the main road, so there’s probably no one even here.” The iridescent fairy wings on her back vanish and the glowing bubble surrounding them and protecting them from the rain fades. Alexa is going to the hotel whether anyone likes it or not and Nikki can follow if she wants or wait in the rain.

“Blargh,” Nikki mumbles, and a string of gibberish tumbles from her mouth as she starts to get wet.

“What did you say?” Alexa asks her jokingly, with a grin. She somehow understands the nonsense that she spoke but likes to make fun of her. “It’s fine. Trust me. Just keep your you-know-what hidden if we see anyone, but I doubt we will because we haven’t seen anyone in hours. The rain’s keeping everyone in.”

“I’m gettin’ all wet,” Nikki continues to grumble and her words come out sounding more like one strange multi-syllable thing than a normal sentence.

“It would be weird if two travelers walked into a hotel dry on a night like this,” Alexa rolls her eyes. “That’s why I’m in charge.”

“Blissy, we’re wearin’ matchin’ shirts with our faces on ‘em,” Nikki looks down at the image on her chest that is now getting drenched.

“It’s fine. Come on,” Alexa insists and starts moving toward the entrance. “We’ll just rest for a few hours and then get back on the road.”

“Ugh!” Nikki gives in and follows, stomping until she catches up.

They regroup under the portico and Alexa looks sternly at Nikki, “Let me do all of the talking. I’ve got this.”

Nikki slumps her shoulders and groans, not even attempting to hide that she thinks this is a bad idea. She still follows her inside completely despite all of her misgivings. Alexa walks confidently up to the tall counter and has to stand slightly on her tiptoes to see the clerk on the other side. She pleasantly greets the pimply-faced boy with a wave and smile, “Hey, there.”

“Five gold,” the disaffected clerk tells her, barely looking up.

She rummages in the coin pouch, hands him five gold pieces, and in exchange, he gives her a large brass key, still barely looking at her. She says, “Thank you.”

Nikki stares at him. She remains standing in place in the lobby even as Alexa starts for the elevator. The clerk doesn’t seem to notice her at all. He licks his fingers and turns a page in the book he’s holding. Alexa clears her throat, getting Nikki’s attention and she follows obediently. She looks back over her shoulder several times and Alexa rolls her eyes. The elevator dings and they step inside. After the doors close, Nikki says, “I really don’t think we should be here.”

“Are you psychic now? Are you?” Alexa taunts. “No, you’re not. You’re not psychic, Nikki. You don’t have premonitions. You don’t have visions. You don’t even have useful dreams. Relax.”

More grumbling.

“Stop that,” Alexa elbows her and her garbled rant abruptly stops as the elevator also comes to a stop. It chimes and they walk down the hallway in silence. Alexa opens the door, flicks the light switch and extends her arms as she enters the room, motioning around the small space, “Look, it’s fine. Everything is fine.”

Nikki sighs. She locks the door behind them and then plops down in a chair, facing the door to keep watch. She crosses her arms and stares. Alexa laughs at her and sprawls out on the hideous floral bedspread. She reaches for the remote and turns on the TV.

As she flips absently through the channels, she says, “It’s really exhausting to project a waterproof aura around two people and maintain it for an entire day, Nikki. I just need to rest for a little while then we’ll go, I promise. I need to recharge my magic.”

“We’re going to be late,” she responds gruffly.

“We’re already late. They’re not going to leave without us. We have two of the belts.” She piles the pillows behind her and props herself up to continue searching for something on TV just as the wind begins to howl outside. There is a sudden pattering of hail on the window and then the power goes out. Alexa sighs and Nikki huffs.

~~~~~

The storm still rages outside of the New Day’s safehouse as well, killing the power again while R-Truth finishes partaking in the feast. He is unfazed by not being able to see. He noisily slurps sauce from his fingers and then finally says, “She made me memorize this message, word-for-word. It didn’t make any sense to me-”

“Great,” Sonya snarks and rolls her eyes.

Mandy punches her in the shoulder as she gets up to light sconces around the room so they aren’t sitting in utter darkness.

She points toward the candle wicks with her wand to light them and R-Truth cries out in surprise, “Oh, shit! I told you I don’t mess with no magic!”

“You’ve got a magic belt, Truth!” Big E tells him.

“It’s not magic, it just makes me run fast,” he tells him in all seriousness. Truth then clears his throat and backtracks slightly, having been interrupted, “It didn’t make any sense to me, but she said it was real important and I know it was important because she grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me, and yelled. She made me repeat it all back to her exactly thirty-six times to make sure I remembered it. She said I had to come here and repeat it, so listen because I’m about to tell you what she told me.” He pauses, making sure everyone is listening. When all eyes are on him, he begins again, “She said for me to tell you to bring all of your gold to Parts Unknown and watch out for the Green Mist.”

They wait for more – because surely there is more - but there is no more.

Everyone exchanges a befuddled glance and Mandy takes a stab at the enigma that was sent to them, “Did she say when? Or why? Or-“

“Nope,” Truth doesn’t let her finish. “I’m just the messenger and my job is done…” His voice trails off and face contorts into a grimace. He looks at them, points at each of them and counts them on the fingers of his other hand. “Wait…somebody’s missing. There’s supposed to be nine of y’all. I counted twice and I keep getting eight.”

Xavier explains, “Alexa and Nikki got held up getting out of Suplex City yesterday. There are seven of us. You’re the eighth. I don’t think you count…or…I don’t know. Who knows.”

“Uh oh,” he looks mortified. He gets to his feet and starts scrambling to stuff pancakes into the pockets of his cloak, saying over and over, “I gotta go.”

They all watch him, no one makes an effort to stop him. He goes to the door and repeatedly tries to open it without unlocking any of the locks.

“Is this the something that was about to happen that you had that feeling about, Woodsy?” Tucker asks him, eyebrow raised curiously.

“Maybe?” He tells him unsurely.

“Should we go?” Sonya wonders. “Is she meeting us there, you think?”

“What’s the Green Mist?” Asks Kofi, confused.

“To emphasize what I said earlier – this is weird,” Mandy comments.

“Do we trust Charlotte?” Big E questions. He goes on his voice getting louder and louder with each new question as it comes to him, “Whose side is she on? Could she have joined the Force of Evil? Have the Forces of Evil reached the Realm of Raw? Is this a trap? Why did she send R-Truth?! Is R-Truth secretly a demon?!”

“This door is stuck!” R-Truth shouts, frantically as he jerks on the knob and then plows his shoulder into it. “I’ve gotta get the message to the others or she’ll kill me! I’m too young to die!”

“We’ll tell them when they get here,” Mandy blinks and watches him struggle. “We’ve got the message under control. You did a good job.”

He whirls around and shakes his head adamantly, “No, no, no. The Queen was very specific and I gotta go!”

“Someone let him out,” Xavier waves his hand dismissively and drifts off into thought again. He hugs Francesca to his chest and mulls over the strange information they’ve been given and the boatload of questions that arose from it.

Otis is wringing his hands together. He looks like he has something to say, but he says nothing.

Mandy releases R-Truth into the night. He tears off into the rain, pulling up the hood of his cloak. A flash of lightning reveals a final glimpse of him disappearing into the trees and she quickly closes the door as thunder booms again.

~~~~~

Nikki remains sitting and staring at the door to the hotel room, in the dark. Thunder crashes along with a bright flash of lightning, but the light outside of the window doesn’t fade afterward. Alexa’s eyes narrow and she watches as the light begins to sway back and forth like it’s trying to see inside, but the curtains are drawn. She sits up and whispers, “Nikki, don’t freak out.”

She turns slowly. The strange light outside casts the room in an eerie white glow, shifting slowly back and forth making the shadows appear pendulous. She immediately gets to her feet but says nothing as she makes her way toward the window.

“I hope that’s not what I think it is…” Alexa moves slowly toward the edge of the bed.

“Go,” Nikki says quietly. “Take the belts and go.” She hasn’t even seen what’s outside.

“You know I can’t do that,” she tells her.

Nikki grabs the curtains and instead of opening them, she jerks downward, pulling the entire curtain rod from the wall. Outside of the window is exactly what they feared – a Referee. The ghastly, divine being hovers on the other side of the glass, emitting white light and gazing at them. He is semi-transparent and has a very stern expression. Then they hear it, the sound associated with the appearance of a Referee, three quick chimes of a bell. The sound can be heard for miles, even over the noise of the storm, it comes from the heavens themselves.

“Oh, crap,” Alexa says between her teeth as the door to their room is kicked in.

A flash of lightning illuminates two silhouettes in the doorway for only a few seconds. They are not imposing figures. Both are in long, colorful robes with dagged sleeves. One is wearing a white mask and the other has a parasol over her shoulder.

Nikki lets out a frustrated yell as the glass of the window shatters inward and the referee floats inside. She raises her arms and makes a quick turn so the shards only stab into her side. This only serves to enrage her and she lunges for the Referee, flinging blood drops around the small room.

“No! You can’t touch the Referee!” Alexa screams at her, “It’s the Kabuki Warriors!” When she turns back toward the door she is run down by the masked assailant whose forearm strikes her across the top of her chest and sends her quickly down to the stained hotel carpet. The back of her head hits the floor, leaving her in a daze.

The light from the Referee allows Nikki to get a look at the other attacker, who is twirling her parasol and making a run toward her. With Alexa down, both of them focus on Nikki. She sees them coming and lets out a shrieking warcry. As they come at her, she runs forward to meet them head-on, paying no heed to the glass protruding from her arm. She swats the umbrella aside, sending Kairi stumbling off balance back toward Alexa. She then latches onto Asuka’s neck and stops her dead in her tracks.

Alexa unsteadily tries to sit up. She shakes her head to clear her vision and sees Kairi coming toward her, preparing to impale her with the closed parasol. At the last possible second, her glimmering wings sprout from her back and she flies toward the ceiling and out of the way. Kairi strikes only empty space.

Kairi begins screaming something that only Asuka understands. Nikki has raised the latter off of the ground. The mask obscures any expression that Asuka’s face might be showing and hands are latched onto Nikki’s wrist trying to free herself from her vice-like grasp. She sputters something back to Kairi then lets go of Nikki’s arm and removes her mask with one hand. Kairi swats at Alexa with the parasol as she flies in a circle around the room and then without warning, Nikki screams in anguish and drops Asuka to claw at her own face.

Alexa hesitates and looks over her shoulder to see what happened and as she does so, Kairi runs and leaps onto the bed, using it as a springboard into her. She drives the parasol into her stomach, bringing her back down to the floor and landing on top of her. Nikki is screaming and kicking, something green seeping between her fingers. She writhes on the floor uselessly as Asuka begins rummaging through their packs.

“The belts!” Alexa yells toward Nikki, seeing what Asuka is doing. She struggles with Kairi who has gotten ahold of one of her wings, squeezing it and causing sparkling glitter to rain down around them, tearing the delicate membrane with her fingers. Nikki doesn’t seem to hear and is just screaming.

When Asuka finds one of the belts she raises it over her head and shouts at Kairi, then points to the second belt. Alexa grabs onto Kairi’s parasol and attempts to use it against her but Kairi maintains control of the object and presses her knees into her shoulders to keep her down. Alexa beats her mercilessly with her uninjured wing, more sparkles flying around them. Kairi grasps the umbrella with both of her hands, raises it above her head, and with an evil laugh, brings the end down on Alexa’s face.

The last thing Alexa hears before everything fades to black is the chiming of the bell and then Asuka’s voice saying something that sounds like, “Where is Becky?”


	3. Booty-Os For Strength!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heroes of the Realm of Smackdown set off on their journey.

[Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-3-Booty-Os-For-Strength-eh79t6)

The storm tapers off by morning, leaving the sky clear and the air cool and crisp. Tucker sits on the front porch of the house in the woods, sword on his lap, sharpening it with a whetstone. The sun is only beginning to peek over the horizon. Otis is inside preparing rations and everyone else is gathering their travel supplies. They have a long journey ahead of them and have to pass through dangerous lands.

Kofi steps outside, puts his hands on his hips, and takes a deep breath. He is wearing the World Championship Belt of Power. The first bits of sunlight glint off of the crystals of the W that emblazons the middle and briefly blinds Tucker. He squints at Kofi then goes back to honing his blade.

Big E joins them next. He too is wearing a Belt of Power and he has his huge hammer strapped to his back. He eats dry cereal straight from the box, gyrating his hips as he crunches. He politely offers some to both Kofi and Tucker, “Booty-Os for strength!” He shakes the box at them and says, “They’ll make your legs big and make you into meaty men!”

“I’m pretty meaty, but I could always use bigger legs,” Tucker says and reaches into the box for a handful.

“Legs like tree trunks!” E tells him ecstatically.

Tucker nods and shoves the cereal into his mouth, many pieces falling onto his chest and around him on the porch. As he crunches away, he sees movement. He stops chewing and listens closely, studying the bushes. There is motion in the shadows down the slightly overgrown path leading to the house. His mouth full of Booty-Os he says, “You see dat, guys?” He points as crumbs spew from his lips. “Somefing thurr.”

“Announce yourselves!” Big E’s commanding voice rings out in the early morning stillness.

“It’s just Alexa and Nikki,” Kofi tells them.

The two women stumble out of the undergrowth and into the clearing. Alexa’s arm is slung across Nikki’s shoulders and she’s practically being dragged, her head lolling from side to side. Nikki is moving with exhausted determination toward them. Her teeth are barred and there’s a green substance streaking her face.

As they get closer, Tucker stands, almost choking on the mouthful of Booty-Os as he swallows to immediately asks, “What happened?!”

“The Kabuki Warriors,” Nikki answers him and urges Alexa to sit down on the steps where she collapses as soon as Nikki lets her go. Nikki panics a little, flails, and stops her from falling over.

“My face,” Alexa mumbles faintly. Her head flops backward and she looks up at the men upside-down. She has two black eyes so swollen she can barely open them and a visibly broken nose. Her wings are also in tatters, one drooping substantially lower than the other.

“Yer face?” Nikki says with some shock and snaps at her a little, uncharacteristically. “Got blinded by green poison, remember? You just got hit with an umbrella.”

“Watch out for the Green Mist…” Kofi mumbles, immediately making the connection. He snaps his fingers and does a triumphant dance around E having figured it out.

“Woulda been nice to know that sooner,” grumbles Nikki.

E backs up toward the door, still shoveling Booty-Os into his mouth. He opens the door just far enough to get his head inside and calls, “Woods! We need healing! Bring Francesca!”

When Xavier comes outside, Kofi immediately tells him, still strutting around everyone, “Truth didn’t find them in time to warn them about the Green Mist.” He talks in rhythm with his dramatic strides, “The Kabuki Warriors attacked them.”

Nikki and Alexa exchange a confused glance and then look at them for answers. Alexa’s eyes can’t focus so she actually looks more behind them. Xavier plays a quick succession of high notes on Francesca – _doot-doot-doo_ \- and a sparkling golden mist emerges from the bell of the trombone. It spirals through the air to congregate on Alexa’s face, making a light twinkling sound like a tiny xylophone as it does so. He then says to Kofi, “They were supposed to be here last night, but they got held up, had they made it, would the Kabuki Warriors also have shown up here?”

“I dunno what yer talkin’ about,” Nikki says. “But we’ve lost our belts.”

“Belts were stolen…” Alexa murmurs weakly. “No DQ…the Referee seemed to be…on their side…”

Kofi stops prancing and reaches for the Booty-Os. The New Day all look at their own belts, seeming to grasp momentarily how easily they could lose them with such rules. Tucker goes back to his sword, but he listens closely as Nikki hurriedly recounts what happened. She leaves out all of her misgivings about resting at the hotel and blames herself for the loss. Alexa reaches out and pats her knee, but does not admit that this was all pretty much her fault. The men mostly understand her accent. They at least get the gist of it.

“Asuka is looking for Becky. I don’t know if that matters,” Alexa adds to the end of the tale as the golden healing dust begins working on her wings. Her face looks better. Not perfect, but better. She can open her eyes and her nose is straightened out, but there is still bruising all the way across. “Last I heard, Becky didn’t even believe a Wrestlemania was coming.”

Kofi shakes his head in disbelief, “If we could convince Becky…”

“I think Charlotte was trying to help,” Tucker interrupts. “Charlotte’s the next best option, right?”

“Shhhh!” Big E hushes him loudly and his eyes look like they’re about to bulge out of his head. “She might hear you!”

“Whoa,” Alexa looks at them dumbfounded, “Charlotte only helps people when she wants something.”

Xavier then tells her and Nikki about their strange encounter with R-Truth: Messenger of the Queen. E offers the box of Booty-Os to Nikki as she listens. She takes some and is intrigued by the mystery. When the debriefing is finished, Xavier’s healing magic is also done. The golden dust has dissipated. Alexa gets up and flutters her wings. She looks at the group and sighs, “So I guess we’re going to Parts Unknown, huh?”

“It’s on the way to the Forgotten Lands of Nitro. More or less,” Woods points out with a shrug. “We should at least maybe see what she wants.”

Kofi confesses, “And Tucker’s right. Charlotte would be useful if this isn’t some sort of trick.”

“And as long as we remain useful to her, yes,” Alexa wants to keep it fresh in their minds that the Queen shouldn’t be trusted. She reaches into the box of Booty-Os and throws a few pieces into her mouth. “I hear this stuff gives you legs like tree trunks.”

“Feel the power!” E says to her with mirth.

“Anyone want a donut?” Sonya bursts out of the door and then exclaims when she sees Alexa, “Holy shit, your face!”

“It can’t be that bad,” she whines. She then turns to Nikki, “It’s not that bad, right?”

“Uh uh,” Nikki shakes her head. “You look right as rain, Lexi.” Then she reaches out and starts touching her hair, picking leaves and other debris from it that became lodged during their trek through the woods.

“Well,” Kofi claps his hands. “Daylight’s wasting. Let’s go.”

“We’re about a half day's ride from Parts Unknown,” Xavier informs them before playing a long, loud _wooooop_ on the trombone. As soon as the note fades, the sound of hooves can be heard in the distance. The sound gets louder and louder and then there are a few snorts and a whinny. The hooves slow and then three white unicorns emerge from the trees. They approach the group, stomping their feet and shaking their shining manes. Their pearlescent, twisted horns glisten in the light of dawn.

“Where are we going in Parts Unknown? Are we just hoping this is revealed to us when we get there?” Sonya wonders aloud. “Maybe Charlotte left a trail of Swarovski crystals for us to follow,” she’s even more unamused by the prospect of an alliance with the Queen than Alexa. She then skewers several donuts onto one of her daggers and laughs at her own joke.

Mandy emerges and says optimistically, “At least it’s a nice day for walking.”

Otis comes out after her, holding something behind his back. He taps her on the shoulder and everyone looks on. She turns to him and he reveals a rose that has been delicately sculpted from thinly sliced ham. “It’s a rose,” he mutters and one eye twitches. “Made of ham.”

Mandy takes it and makes a vaguely amused face, unsure what to do with it. Does she eat it? Does she pin it to herself like a lapel? Sonya snickers and takes a bite of a donut from her dagger. Otis scurries off of the porch and transforms into a massive elk. He kneels down and nearly knocks Nikki over with his expansive rack of antlers.

“Mandy,” Tucker tells her and motions her toward Otis the elk, “You don’t have to walk.”

“Oh…” She smiles, as she descends the steps, holding the ham-rose and her wand. She looks a little confused by this but doesn’t object to not walking. Once she climbs on just behind his shoulders, he carefully stands.

“Oh, yeah!” Otis the elk says to himself and licks his lips then trots out in front, head held high.

The New Day gets onto their unicorns and Tucker picks up his huge kite shield and sword to bring up the rear of the party, remaining on foot. Nikki joins him and shares the box of Booty-Os so they can both get legs like tree trunks. Apprehensively, Alexa lifts slightly off of the ground, unsure how her wings are doing after being brutalized by Kairi’s mean little fingers. She’s still not feeling quite up to par but satisfied enough, she flies a little higher and then zips to the front with Otis and Mandy, followed by the New Day who have all dawned unicorn horn headbands to match their beasts. Sonya walks in the middle, eating donuts, as they begin to journey north toward Parts Unknown, the Realm of Raw, and the Forgotten Lands of Nitro.

~~~~~

_Ding-ding-ding!_

The party hears the horrifying noise almost immediately as the forest begins to thin and they start to see the hilly fields that stretch toward the gray forest that surrounds Parts Unknown. Otis comes to a sudden halt and Kofi’s unicorn nearly bumps into his rear. They don’t immediately see the Referee and begin looking around frantically for the challenger.

Alexa shoots quickly into the air above the trees to see if she can see anything.

“Who was the bell for?!” Sonya yells to Mandy at the front and wipes the donut glaze from her dagger on her pants and draws the second one from within her boot.

“I don’t know!” She yells back and urges Otis forward to see what they can see on the path ahead.

“I don’t see anyone!” Alexa calls down to them. “But it’s probably someone after one of the belts! Protect the New Day!”

Tucker whirls around, sword and shield poised and ready for an attack from behind. They hear a thunderous noise from somewhere across the fields, but it isn’t thunder at all. Alexa can see a hulking creature in the distance, but can’t make out what it is exactly. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman,” says a voice, coming from all around them similar to the bell.

“Paul Heyman?” Kofi looks at Xavier and E. “Paul Heyman is a myth.”

“Another myth we can scratch off the myth list, I guess,” Sonya responds from behind him. “I guess all of the myths come out of hiding for Wrestlemanias.”

Paul Heyman, God of the Underworld, the Titan of Heel, goes on his voice booming, “I am the Advocate for the Beast Incarnate, the Undisputed Dreadlord from the deepest Pit of Heel, the Soon-To-Be-Holder of the World Championship Belt of Power…Brock Lesnar!”

It is then that Alexa recognizes the thing moving rapidly around the field. It is an armored rhinoceros bearing Brock Lesnar who is holding a lance. “Oh, no…” She buzzes back down and says, “He’s on a battle rhino and has a lance. Stay in the trees. We have to get him off of his mount.”

“Kofi Kingston doesn’t run from a fight!” Big E is appalled and looks at her with his mouth agape.

“She’s not saying to run,” Sonya comes to her defense. “She’s trying to save your life and stop you from losing your belt.”

“I got this,” Kofi nods and pulls back on the reigns of his unicorn. It rears and neighs and then breaks off into a full run ahead, leaving a rainbow trail in its wake.

Mandy still riding Otis, is at the edge of the trees preparing to attempt to slow down the rapidly approaching Brock Lesnar. Balls of red fire orbit her. When Kofi and his unicorn go tearing by she shouts at him, “What are you doing?!” He ignores her and she then says, “Otis, let’s go!”

The bulky elk goes tearing off after the unicorn, flailing his head from side-to-side breaking tree branches and plowing straight through several saplings, ignoring the trail entirely, making a straight-line after Kofi.

The Referee appears, floating ominously above the field about a quarter-mile ahead of them. The noise from Brock’s rhino sounds sort of like war drums, steady and growing ever louder. They all hear another sound then, chanting.

“Kofi! Kofi! Kofi!” It sounds like a thousand voices, but there are no people. They’ve all heard these mysterious voices before, but never so loud.

Alexa flies again above the trees and sees Kofi plowing headlong toward Brock without any sort of weapon suited for mounted combat. He doesn’t have a weapon at all, she realizes. Kofi is a close-quarters melee fighter, not a mounted fighter by any means. She mumbles, “Oh, no…oh, poop.”

Otis and Mandy are trying desperately to catch up, but the unicorn is freakishly fast. Mandy throws one of her arms forward and the fireballs leave their orbits and whiz past Kofi. They strike the ground at the rhino’s feet, but the creature is unaffected even though the ground is scorched. The others begin trickling from the forest just in time to see Brock lower his menacing, black lance, and point it toward his target.

Mandy summons a wall of fire in front of Brock, hoping to slow him down. It roars to life, but he charges through it as if it is nothing. The rhinoceros shakes its metal-plated head once and does not slow. Brock laughs a strange high-pitched laugh that doesn’t at all fit his frame. It’s a girlish giggle, but the earth still trembles.

Kofi presses his unicorn on and crouches low, hoping to gain even more speed.

“What is he doing?!” Tucker demands to know, but no one answers. No one knows.

The chants of the invisible audience make Kofi feel invincible and he knows the belt around his waist can give him immense power, but he has no idea what that power is or how to make that power work. He lets out a fierce yell. His unicorn, avoiding collision with the rhino veers right at the last possible second in the dangerous game of chicken, but this does not save Kofi from the reach of Brock’s well-aimed lance.

The voices that were chanting go silent as the lance shatters against his left shoulder. He is knocked into the air and backward. The lance breaks and part of it pierces into him. He goes tumbling off of his mount, a full flip, the belt coming undone and falling from his waist as he lands facedown, the broken piece of lance forced completely through his body is left protruding and bloodied.

Brock turns his rhinoceros around, power sliding with the huge animal, churning up the earth, and creating a giant divot in the ground. He throws the remainder of his lance onto Kofi’s unmoving body. It strikes him hollowly then rolls off of him and he doesn’t move. Brock slows and begins to circle the scene, locking eyes with all of those watching. The Referee picks up the belt, raises it high, then hands it to him. He puts it around his own waist and raises his arms in triumph, staring at the spectators.

“Kofi!” Big E wails and then recklessly charges forward with Xavier not far behind. The others follow suit on foot.

Mandy and Otis continue forward and a bolt of fire blasts from the mage’s wand toward Brock’s bare chest. He swats it away with his hand and she gasps - Brock Lesnar is immune to fire.

Alexa goes wide and tries to strike him with a throwing knife from above, but he turns and catches it deftly. He throws it back and it goes flying past her face and into oblivion. He then laughs again, the petrifying giggle, he turns and begins moving quickly away from them. Before they can catch up a dark portal opens up in front of him and he disappears into it before it closes.

The bell rings.


	4. The Gang Gets Zigglered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otis levels up and the heroes face another trial on their way to Parts Unknown.

[Podfic episode](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-4-The-Gang-Gets-Zigglered-ehjkrn)

Big E dismounts his unicorn and roars with rage, even though Brock is already long gone to whatever part of the world the portal took him to. Smoke rises into the air from the charred ground left behind by Mandy’s failed spells. She leaps off of Otis’ back and runs to Kofi while peering into her satchel. As soon as she is off, Otis transforms into a tree-type creature with a very wide diameter. His arms are branches and his feet are twining roots.

Kofi is still lying facedown and hasn’t moved since he landed in that position. His arms are splayed awkwardly. Blood has pooled under him and soaks his pink and blue spandex. Mandy is pulling out bandages and Xavier stumbles from his unicorn looking pale. He begins trying to play something on Francesca. The tune seems inappropriately upbeat for the seriousness of the moment, but after a few notes, a golden glow begins to emanate around his fallen comrade.

Mandy stands above Kofi, holding a roll of bandages, realizing bandages won’t fix this as everyone else gathers around. Otis shuffles forward on his tree feet and shoulders his way between Sonya and Nikki, scraping them with his bark. “Oh, boy,” he says quickly and referring to the broken chunk of lance. “You gotta pull that out. Somebody’s gotta get it out.” No one moves and he then says loudly, “Tucky! Get it!”

Tucker kneels next to Kofi and grasps the splintering, blood-covered shard.

“Ew…” Alexa groans and looks away.

Green, sparkling tendrils are coming from Otis’ branching fingers and also snaking up from the ground around Kofi, as well as from the burnt patches of earth nearby. He says urgently, “Get it out, Tucky!”

Tucker yanks and it makes a squelching, tearing sound. It doesn’t come all the way out on his first attempt. He accidentally lifts up Kofi’s limp body instead of removing the object. He winces and puts one hand on Kofi’s back for leverage as he pulls with the other. There is another moist squelch, a crunch, and then another squelch. It leaves a gaping open wound that seems to be peering up at him. It only remains gaping for a moment before it becomes filled by the golden glow from Francesca’s magic.

“Oh, yeah!” Otis cries out victoriously as his magic tangles with Xavier’s creating an even brighter glow and a heavenly hum. The grass grows again from the burned spots, erasing all evidence of the destructive fire and Otis’ hands glow brighter and brighter. He wiggles his fingers and the tendrils encircle him as well as Kofi.

Tucker throws the piece of lance aside and tries to wipe his hands on his vest. As he tries to get the blood off of his palms, he watches in awe as Otis does something he has never done before. They all watch and wait, entranced. The wound is closed, but a large scar is left and his gear is irreparably damaged. Kofi groans and rolls himself over. He blinks several times and gazes up at the sky. He is covered in dirt and blood but doesn’t seem to realize it nor care.

“Uh, oh!” Yells Otis and he starts to teeter as the magic fades, having done its job. As he begins to fall, he starts spinning his arms. He turns back into human Otis and his ass thumps onto the ground. He chuckles as both Tucker and Mandy move toward him. Mandy is still gripping desperately onto the bandages and Tucker pulls several slices of ham from his pack and hands them to his friend who snatches and eats them ravenously.

Kofi gasps for breath and says nothing. He just keeps blinking and lying otherwise very still.

Big E and Xavier laugh triumphantly and then run at each other and chest bump. Big E’s chest bumps Woods completely off of his feet. Everyone is relieved and there are some gleeful sighs, some more laughs. Tucker is patting Otis on the back and congratulating him for the high-level spell he somehow cast in the moment of need. Their celebrations are cut very short.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

The ham falls from Otis’ fingers and his jaw drops. Alexa screams such a high-pitched banshee-like scream that everyone covers their ears as she flies high above them again to see who it is coming to fuck with them this time.

“You can’t be serious,” Sonya rolls her eyes and twirls her blades. “What’s going on? Who is calling these shots?”

“The Titan of Pinfall…” Xavier says solemnly. “He Who Shall Not Be Named.”

Everyone poises for a fight again except Kofi and Otis though Otis is trying to get up. He is visibly exhausted having passed his own life force into Kofi. He’s extremely sweaty and begins to take off his shirt to make himself more comfortable.

“They’re comin’ fer yer belts!” Nikki yells and points as the two leisurely approaching men reach the peak of a nearby hill.

Robert Roode is in something that looks very much like a bathrobe and carrying an ax while Dolph Ziggler is shirtless with a flail and his hair is flowing in a wind that is only affecting him. Neither looks particularly intimidating. A new ghostly Referee materializes on the field.

“Whoa, this looks like a party!” Dolph says, waving his free hand and smiling. “Hey, everyone,” he greets them and then looks at Mandy specifically. “Hi, Mandy.”

“Hi, Dolph…” She returns the gesture with uncertainty.

The two men are keeping their distance and not approaching the group, but they’re making no effort to attack either. Roode keeps posing and flexing with his ax. Dolph comes a little closer, dragging the flail behind him carelessly. He says, “So here’s the deal. I don’t have a problem with any of you guys, but we’ve been sent by the King, and who are we to argue with the King, you know?” He shrugs. “If you could just hand us those SmackDown Tag Team Belts of Power, we’ll be on our way.”

“What King?” Asks Xavier.

“The King of the Ring. King Corbin,” he tells him.

“You’re a long way from the Ring,” Sonya comments.

He shrugs again, “Yeah, but you see, apparently, there’s some sort of Wrestlemania about to happen, and well, the King wants his court to have the Belts of Power, so we can fight the bad guys.”

Alexa flies around them and points out, “You all are kinda the bad guys right now.”

“Worse guys. We’re going to fight the worse guys,” he clarifies. “And if we beat the worse guys then we’ll be the good guys, right?”

“No, sir…” Big E drags out the words for several long seconds and everyone agrees with him, shaking their heads. 

“I mean,” Dolph gives them another shrug and smiles innocently. “We’re practically on the same side in this.”

“So why don’t ya leave their belts alone then, yeah?” Nikki asks, clenching her fists, her rage building.

Dolph looks at her and his brow furrows. “I can’t understand her. Does anyone know what she just said?”

“She said you can kiss our asses, Ziggler,” Alexa says angrily.

“That’s not what I said,” Nikki tries to tell her and Alexa then shoots her a glare as well.

Big E and Woods quickly get back on their unicorns, preparing to defend their belts.

“Wait, let me talk to Dolph,” Mandy says suddenly and begins walking slowly toward the men before anyone can stop her.

Otis reaches out to grab her, but his fist catches only air. He opens his mouth to say something, but all that comes out is, “Errr...ummm…”

Ziggler smiles and twirls the flail casually as she approaches then he extends his arms for a hug. She stops, seems to study him for a moment. Everyone watches, holding their breath. She does not hug him.

“No hug?” He questions. He shrugs once more, “Ok.” His smile fades into a frown and he skillfully swings the flail out and low. The spiked ball on the end doesn’t hit Mandy but instead carries the chain around her ankles. Once wrapped, he jerks back, it locks in place, and she falls. He nods to Roode and says, “Now.”

Before Mandy has hit the ground, Otis regains his will. He lets out a terrifying roar and Otis the bear rips across the grass, kicking up dirt and salivating with rage. Xavier and E follow suit and pass him, galloping swiftly. E heads for Roode, pulling back his hammer for a mighty swing. Xavier moves for Ziggler, blowing loudly into Francesca.

“You son of a bitch!” Sonya yells and she too breaks out in a run. After a few seconds, she vanishes from view, blending in with the landscape.

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” Alexa flies quickly to catch up with the unicorns and begins trying to surround the two men with protective auras to avoid another Kofi incident. This time they’re on mounts against men on foot though, so her hopes are a bit higher. Her hopes are quickly dashed.

E swerves to the left of Roode and swings his hammer out as he passes. Roode quickly ducks and then sweeps back with his ax, cutting deep into the ankle of the unicorn. The creature lets out a blood-curdling scream as it collapses and E tumbles from its back onto the ground. Dolph suddenly has a knife to Mandy’s throat with one hand, using her as a human shield. He spins the flail and the chain tangles around one of the front legs of Xavier’s unicorn, pulling it to the ground and sending Xavier careening off as well.

Otis comes to a stop out of the reach of the flail and seeing Mandy in danger he stands on his hind legs and roars, trying to taunt her captor. Dolph ignores him and starts backing up toward his partner so they’re standing back-to-back and no one can take either from behind. Both E and Woods are trying to get to their feet and Tucker is pounding on his shield with his sword, trying to draw attention his way, but to no avail. Alexa tries to help the two downed fighters to their feet – they’re not too worse for wear after being sent over the fronts of their mounts and into the ground. Nikki reaches their attackers and stands just out of reach of the flail near Otis. Kofi remains lying where he was.

“We’re outnumbered,” Dolph states noticing that they’re surrounded. He doesn’t seem concerned though. He’s not concerned at all and this concerns everyone in the party.

“One’s missing,” Roode tells him right as Sonya reappears next to them, descending upon them with daggers drawn, going for both of their necks at once. She misses them as Roode promptly surrounds them in a glowing blue shield that appears to be made of ice. She collides instead with the aura and as her blades connect with it, it makes a sound like metal on metal. She hits so hard and unexpectedly that it knocks her off of her feet and sends tremors up both of her arms.

The injured unicorns are screaming, Otis the bear is roaring, and Nikki is letting out a string of what might be profanity. Only Alexa understands her and responds to her, “Hold on! Give me two seconds! My spells aren’t instant! I have to channel the damn things!”

E finally gets up. He shakes his head and groans, using his hammer like a cane to steady himself. He looks at his unicorn, lying helplessly on the ground, white fur splattered with red. He looks at Roode, points his hammer toward him, and says, “You asshole!”

Xavier leans forward to catch his breath and then begins playing a wild tune on Francesca and seems to give Big E even more strength.

The strange chanting voices begin again. This time they’re saying, “New Day rocks! New Day rocks!”

Woods plays along with the chant – _doot doot-doot!_

Holding the hammer like a baseball bat, E begins sprinting toward Roode and Ziggler.

Alexa groans and flies toward them as well. As she gets closer the blue glow around them starts to jiggle and then fade, which seems to perplex Roode momentarily but then he looks up at her with eyes narrowed. Ziggler is still using Mandy to protect himself from Otis and Nikki, but Sonya is moving back toward him, watching his every move. He’s smiling confidently, knife to Mandy’s throat as she holds as still as possible. As soon as the blue glow has faded completely, Nikki barrels toward Roode instead of Ziggler hoping to catch him off guard. He swings the ax and she catches the blade between her hands like she’s trapping a fly. Fluidly, she reaches forward and grabs the shaft, trying to wrest it from his grip. Big E is coming up behind him. Otis and Sonya close in on Ziggler cautiously.

Roode lets out a laugh as his weapon begins to turn to ice and freeze Nikki’s hands rapidly and painfully. She yells in agony and releases her grip, freezing needles stabbing into her palms. He pulls the ax away and then kicks her in her midsection, sending her into Tucker’s shield, knocking them both several feet away, tumbling on top of one another. In the next second, he swings back to block E’s hammer attack. They lock weapons. The sharp ice spreads to the hammer and then to E’s hands as it did Nikki’s. He cries out in pain but doesn’t let go even as his hands begin to bleed and crack. Ziggler swings the flail around, driving it low into the back of E’s knee, taking him down a notch and ripping open his calf. Blood spatters onto Roode’s sequined bathrobe.

Still playing the three-note rhythm along with the chants from the thousands of invisible people is Xavier. No one can get to Ziggler without also mowing through Mandy. With E down on one knee, Roode uses his ax to knock the hammer from his hands. It spins end over end and lands near Tucker and Nikki. He then blasts them both with ice bolts from his fingers as he holds the ax over E. E ignores the pain in the back of his leg and stands, driving his shoulder toward Roode’s thighs to knock him off balance. When he hits, he does knock Roode back into Ziggler, but he gets the butt of the ax to the side of his head with unexpected force from the man wearing a bathrobe with some sequins on it.

Roode and Ziggler both laugh as Roode reaches down and takes the belt right off of Big E’s waist then huge ice spikes shoot up beneath him, sending him flying like a ragdoll away from the fray.

The trombone music comes to a stop and so do the voices. Silence. E is prone. Tucker and Nikki are frozen to the ground and trying to break free. Ziggler begins laughing hysterically with no one able to get to him. He looks toward Xavier and can barely get the words out between his riotous chuckles, “Just give me your belt, pal.”

No one moves an inch, not even the ones who aren’t knocked out or frozen. It’s a standoff.

Ziggler then looks at the Referee and asks, “Can you get the rest of these people to back up a little. This really isn’t fair and this is supposed to be between me and Woods over there. I’m feeling so crowded.”

The Referee nods and begins floating around him in a circle. He motions Otis back. His big bear feet shuffle and he snorts then growls, digging his claws into the ground. The Referee then shoos Sonya back and looks up at Alexa. He waves a finger at her as a warning. Then the astral being drifts between Ziggler and Woods. Roode stands behind him, holding the belt in one hand and his ax in the other.

“Just give it to me. We won,” Ziggler gives him a shrug then he pokes the tip of the knife into the skin under Mandy’s jaw. A bead of blood drips down her neck and Xavier rips off his belt. He throws it toward the Referee with a sneer.

Everyone watches. Not speaking. Not moving.

“Let her go!” Sonya screams at Dolph as the Referee brings him the belt.

Ziggler grins widely once his fingers grasp his prize. He can’t hold it up triumphantly or put on any sort of display because he refuses to let go of Mandy. A portal similar to the one Brock opened appears. It isn’t a void of blackness but on the other side, there are buildings, a street. Roode takes a step into it, striking a pose as he does so. Ziggler backs up toward it as well and takes Mandy with him as it closes.

Otis lets out a mournful roar of despair.

There’s a sudden flash of movement and R-Truth appears. He asks, “What’s all this noise? It’s such a nice day and y’all disturbing everything now.”

_Ding! Ding! Ding!_


	5. Some Audiences With Some Queens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Find out if the unicorns survived.

[Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-5-Some-Audiences-With-Some-Queens-ehufgu)

None of the realms have ever wanted to claim Parts Unknown although it stretches across all of Pinfall. It isn’t really suitable for life – not normal life at least, and it’s said to be haunted. The grass is sparse and patchy, the forested sections have trees with gray bark and drooping branches. Everything is tangled in thorny vines and there is always an eerie mist settled on the ground. The animals there are not cute woodland creatures, but instead wyverns, manticores, and giant spiders. There are people too, but it’s best to avoid them at all costs lest risk being indoctrinated into a cult or cannibalized.

The legends purport that Parts Unknown is the place where the Forces of Evil first entered Pinfall. A huge tear was ripped in the fabric of reality and the Forces of Evil flowed into Pinfall like a tidal wave from the Pits of Heel. From there they marched across the land bringing the First Wrestlemania and leaving this dreary region in their wake. The demons tainted the land irrevocably and it never recovered.

Parts Unknown became shrouded in myth and superstition. Pinfall’s travelers only half-believed the old stories and yet seldom entered the region. Those that did enter seldom came back out and if they did, they didn’t come back out quite the same. There are designated safe paths that cut across scrubland and no places to stop along these roads, not until reaching the other side. The legends about Parts Unknown, like the other legends mentioned thus far, are completely true. Mostly. People are right to be paranoid and superstitious about the land at least.

~~~~~

The injured unicorns, healed by a bit of Xavier’s magic, refused to get within fifteen feet of the gloomy trees and went on their way after the New Day bid farewell to them. Big E gives his unicorn several handfuls of Booty-Os. They could be summoned again by Francesca later of course, but they would not come while their riders were in Parts Unknown.

R-Truth runs circles around the group as they limp and drag themselves into the woodland nursing their own wounds and battered pride. Alexa eyes Truth curiously, wondering not only why, but how he is zipping around tirelessly. Sometimes he moves so quickly that he is just a blur. When he stops, he isn’t remotely winded. No one bothers asking him about this.

There is no path for them, and they trudge right into the forest, stomping on and slashing their way through prickly bushes. When they step into the trees the light fades behind them and everything becomes dim. It is as if the sunlight doesn’t even want to venture into Parts Unknown. It startles them all and they pause, except R-Truth who continues running in widening circles somehow not tripping on the underbrush. Nikki looks up to make sure Alexa is still above them and she notices that the sky looks like dusk before a storm, but it was certainly not that late when they entered. Alexa joins them on the ground, the branches are too tangled and twisted for her to comfortably fly through. No one speaks for a while and there are no chirping birds. There is only the sound of their footfalls. Nikki walks behind Alexa and begins pulling more debris from her hair. Sonya rides on Otis who has remained in bear form. Both of them in states of great despair. No one speaks for a time.

“Are we sure about this?” Sonya asks, whispering because she doesn’t want to disturb anything that might be lurking in the shadows. “Maybe we should just turn around and go toward the Ring instead? Rescue Mandy and get the SmackDown Tag Belts back?”

“Uh-huh. Maybe,” Otis the bear snorts, agreeing. The portal that Roode opened surely taking them and Mandy to King Corbin. “Tucky?” Otis prompts, hoping for his support.

“The original plan was to go to the Forgotten Lands, man,” Tucker says. “We can’t just abandon that.”

“But we can abandon Mandy?” Sonya is appalled but still keeps her voice down.

“Let’s just keep moving,” Kofi insists. “We’ll figure everything out once we get out of here.”

“This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies,” says Big E and they all keep moving.

No one knows exactly where they’re going or what they’re looking for and they begin to think it was absolutely stupid to do anything brought to them in a vague message by R-Truth from Charlotte Flair. No one says this aloud though.

“That trail of Swarovski crystals would be cool right about now,” Kofi jokes out of nowhere, desperately wanting to lighten the mood.

Forced, awkward laughter from the group shatters the silence but then tapers off again.

As they trudge farther inward, they start to see structures. There are some decrepit shacks. Soon the shacks turn into abandoned houses along what used to be a thoroughfare. They follow the unkept road into a full-fledged ghost town. Windows are busted out, doors hang onto rusty hinges, and ancient signs have fallen from storefronts. The stories said that there used to be cities in Parts Unknown, towns, civilization – before it became Parts Unknown, that is.

“Y’all sure this is where we’re supposed to go?” R-Truth asks them, finally coming to a stop, and seeming to realize where he is. “Man, it got dark quick!” He looks up at the sky and squints.

Tucker flatly reminds him, “You are the one who brought us the message saying to come here.”

“Parts Unknown is pretty big. Like, very big,” Alexa flies up above them again, getting the lay of the land now that the trees have thinned. “Are you sure there wasn’t a slightly more specific location? We might not be anywhere near where we’re supposed to be.”

“This is starting to seem a bit like a bad idea…” Kofi finally says, but in a sing-song voice, trying not to sound overly worried.

“It always sounded like a bad idea to me,” Sonya mumbles. “We should have just gone straight for Nitro and ignored any and all nonsense from Charlotte. You all would still probably have your belts and Mandy wouldn’t have been kidnapped by Dolph.”

A raven lets out a very loud and rather angry sounding caw, startling them all. The New Day all cling onto one another and squeal.

“Just a bird,” Big E announces confidently, patting Xavier and Kofi on their backs comfortingly and they disperse.

A huge black raven lands on the remnants of what probably used to be a fence. The fence is now a bunch of graying stakes, jutting from the earth. R-Truth shrieks and cowers behind E when he sees the bird. The raven cocks its head to the side, looking at all of them and then opens its beak. Something shiny falls to the ground and rolls to Xavier’s feet.

He bends down and picks up the tiny object. It glitters in the sun and he says, “It’s a Swarovski crystal…”

“Maybe the bird ate Charlotte,” Sonya suggests, flatly. No one can tell if she’s joking or not.

The raven clicks its beak and hops on a post to move closer to her. Otis the bear takes a very cautious step toward the bird and sniffs it then backs up quickly. Sonya has to grab handfuls of hair on the scruff of his neck to not fall off as he scrambles, nearly tripping over his own feet. The bird then spreads its wings and glides down from the fence. Before it hits the ground, it turns into a twisting black and purple mist. It swirls and grows in size. When the mist dissipates, the raven has been replaced by the Queen. 

“You’ve got jokes,” she says to Sonya in a similarly flat tone as she adjusts the high feathered collar of her robe. The feathered accents of the robe match the feathers of the raven. “Trail of Swarovski crystals? Bird ate Charlotte? Very funny.” Charlotte isn’t laughing at all.

“Told you she hears everything,” E leans over and says to Sonya.

Charlotte then looks toward him. Her eyes narrow and she asks, “Where’s your belt?”

“Uh…well, you see…” He starts to explain.

“Where are all of your belts?” She doesn’t let him finish. Then without looking she reaches up and grabs Alexa’s ankle to jerk her back down to the ground with the rest of them, not liking her buzzing around above her. “And why is there one of you missing?”

“My belt’s right here!” Truth announces and opens up the front of his cloak to show her. “I got mine!”

“Eh, uh, we kinda lost them on the way here,” Kofi confesses and rubs the back of his neck. He doesn’t make eye contact with her.

“And Mandy was taken by Dolph Ziggler,” Sonya tells her.

Her expression doesn’t change, and everyone waits for her to say something. She just stands there, looking at them blankly, which is worse than her being disappointed or angry. No one is sure if she’s about to kill them all or not. The silence seems to stretch on for several minutes before Charlotte clasps her hands in front of her and clears her throat. She looks down for a moment, preparing herself.

When she looks up, she begins yelling, “Are you fucking kidding me?!” She gestures broadly at all of them then points at Truth, “R-Truth is the only one of you that made it here without somehow losing his belt?” She shrugs dramatically before going on, “And you let Mandy be kidnapped by an idiot minion of King Corbin of all people? What the fuck?!” Another, more brief moment of silence follows and then she bursts out laughing. The New Day look ashamed, sheepish, and they remain quiet. Nikki is giving Alexa a back massage while she shifts around awkwardly. After Charlotte’s insane laughter subsides, she asks, “Any of you plan to get them back? The belts, not Mandy – that’s more of a side-quest.”

“You don’t have a belt,” Nikki comments defensively.

“That’s not remotely your concern,” she gives her a condescending closed-lip smile.

Woods steps up then and asks, “Why did you want us to come here?”

“I was going to show you morons how to use the magic contained in the Belts of Power, but now you don’t have any, so…” She shrugs again. “Looks like you came here for nothing because Truth knows how to use his. Wow. Good job. You’ve all been totally shown up by R-Truth.”

“That’s right,” Truth says proudly and struts around in front of them.

She laughs again, “We are absolutely fucked if you all are the best heroes Pinfall can shit out.”

“Why’d ya wanna help us?” Nikki asks, sounding accusatory.

She doesn’t answer and instead points to something behind them. They all turn and see an old sign that is barely legible, but they can make out that it says ‘WRESTLEMANIA.’ It looks like it may have once been a very elaborate sign with brightly colored LED lights, but now it is gray and weathered.

“But why?” Xavier then asks, with more emphasis when he turns back to face her.

Charlotte blinks and studies him for a moment, “Did you know that the First Champions - the ones who fought in the Wrestlemanias of Olde – were made into gods by the Titan of Pinfall?”

“That’s how the stories go,” Big E chimes in. “The stories also say that you’re the descendant of a god.”

“Very good. Gold star for Big E.” She then looks at Xavier, “Obviously, for that reason, I want to stop the Forces of Evil. It’s my legacy. Besides, I can’t very well be the Queen if there’s nothing for me to be the queen of, now can I?”

“Excuse me,” Sonya speaks up. “But what exactly are you the queen of right now?”

Everyone looks at her nervously and Charlotte chuckles.

“So you are, like, legit half-god?” Xavier eyes her, waving Francesca at her a bit.

She gives him a slight shrug, still laughing.

“Excuse me - Alexa is _the_ Goddess,” Nikki says, defensively.

Charlotte looks at her again and then at Alexa, still laughing, “She’s a forest sprite. At best, she’s a little woodland fairy, so please stop talking.”

Nikki starts to make a lunge for Charlotte, but Alexa extends her arm to hold her at bay.

Amused, Charlotte goes on, “I suppose you’re all still useful even without your belts at the moment. You’re traveling to the Forgotten Lands of Nitro, are you not?” Charlotte continues, “You’re seeking the Ancient Contracts because they contain all of the knowledge of each of the Belts of Power.”

“How did you know what we were planning?” Xavier questions.

“Because I’m the Queen. I’m half-god. We literally just went over this,” she snaps at him a little then continues her monologue, “You all know the legends. You know you need to rally the Four Realms. The Belts of Power must belong to honorable Champions that the others in the Realms will follow into the Wrestlemania to defeat the Forces of Evil and close all of the Heelgates.”

“Are you saying that the in-fighting needs to stop?” Kofi asks her, amused. “You? You’re saying this?”

She gives him a glance, “Now I don’t have to say it because you did. Thank you.” She paces back and forth in front of them a few times, “I’ll deal with Realm of Raw and I can address Sasha and Bayley when the time comes. Find Braun Strowman. Last I heard he was pursuing the Intercontinental Belt of Power. Help him get it. Roman Reigns and his little sidekick Daniel Bryan – find them, they’re valuable.”

“What about the NXT realms?” Tucker asks her with a slight bow of his head, attempting to be respectful.

She smiles at him a little, “Those are lawless lands, but their belts are strong, and heroes are emerging on their own in NXT.” She shrugs, “All of their Belts of Power belong to the Forces of Evil and NXT UK is nearly completely overrun by demons and corruption. We’ll see how this plays out and cross that bridge later.”

Alexa’s eyebrows raise curiously, and she spits out, “Asuka’s looking for Becky.”

Charlotte’s face twitches, almost imperceptibly. She says nothing and otherwise doesn’t react.

“Where is Becky?” Alexa then asks, having tested the waters. “People will follow her if we can get her to join us.”

With a chuckle, “People only follow her because she’s using her Belts of Power she has and not even realizing it.” Charlotte suddenly shakes her head, “Don’t concern yourselves with Becky right now. Find the Ancient Contracts and rally the Realm of SmackDown.” She looks them all over a final time and observes, “None of you trust me. That’s probably for the best.”

Black and purple mist spirals around her and then the raven flies away to the **east** toward the Bridge of Summerslam at the border of SmackDown and Raw.

“Well, then,” Big E puts his hands on his hips. “I guess we need to split up.” He clenches his fists and says, “Let’s Scooby Doo this.”

“We’re doin’ what she said?” Nikki is surprised.

“What if she’s trying to split us up so she can kill us all?” Sonya asks them, completely serious.

“She’s not,” Alexa answers quickly, correcting her. “She doesn’t trust us either if that’s any consolation. I mean we did manage to lose all of the belts we had, so…”

“How do ya know?” Asks Nikki.

She sighs, “It’s one of my little woodland fairy powers. I can see into peoples’ souls when they touch me and she grabbed my ankle, which I suspect she probably knew…”

“Ya never told me this,” Nikki is being bombarded with surprises and her brow is firmly knitted.

“Let a girl have some secrets. Damn,” Alexa flies above them again to look around.

“So you’ve changed your tune, just like that?” Xavier wonders and looks up at her.

“Slightly,” she admits. “Nikki and I will go through Raw and get the Ancient Contracts. I think we can manage that. With no belts we won’t be targets and no one takes us seriously anyway, so I think we can get there the easiest.”

“We’ll find Braun,” Xavier nods and motions to the other members of the New Day.

“We’ll go to the Ring, I guess” Tucker decides and then looks at Sonya and Otis. “We’ll get the SmackDown Tag Belts of Power back and complete the side-quest.”

“What about Truth?” Kofi asks, and then they all realize R-Truth has disappeared. He then says with a shrug, “Nevermind.”

Big E reaches into his pack and pulls out another box of Booty-Os, he opens it and then they pass it around. Sonya gets off of Otis’ back and walks toward the Wrestlemania sign. She looks at the relic and then reaches out and touches around some of the broken lights that once formed the word. The sign also once had an arrow on it, it appears. It points to the north. Her eyes drift up the wide road that cuts through this strange city whose name has been lost to time.

~~~~~

Farther to the east, another group of heroes gathers at a rickety wooden table in the corner of a tavern called Takeover: The Tavern. None of them have belts either. Tommaso Ciampa’s elbow is propped on the table and his chin rests in his hand, ruffling his beard. He sighs. Across from him sits Keith Lee, the hood of his sweatshirt casting his face in shadow. Dominik Dijakovic sits next to Lee and raps his fingers on the tabletop. Johnny Gargano joins them a few minutes later, sliding onto the bench next to Ciampa.

The newcomer says with grim sincerity, “NXT UK is about to fall. There’s nothing we can do. No reinforcements are coming from the other Realms.”

“That’s not the news we wanted to hear,” Ciampa sighs again.

“Don’t give up hope, bros!” Matt Riddle comes over from the bar bringing several flagons of ale.

The other four men turn slowly to look at him and Ciampa asks, “Who are you again?”

He hands the ale out to them one by one and stands at the end of their table. He ignores the question and says, “I couldn’t help but overhear the anguish of like-minded hero-type bros that want to save the Realm of NXT and I am here to assist with the Stallion Battalion.”

“Riddle! Leave ‘em alone! Get back here!” Pete Dunne shouts across the room and tries to usher Matt back to where they were sitting, which was much too far away for him to simply have overheard their conversation.

“Please come retrieve him, Pete!” Dijakovic yells at him.

“Bro. Bro,” Matt tries again this time focusing on Dominik. “Hear me out.”

“Riddle!” Pete interrupts him and stands up abruptly, knocking over his chair, drawing even more attention to himself that he didn’t want.

“Bro!” Matt yells at Pete. “Hold on!” He looks back at the other four men, “Just hear me out, other bros. There is strength in numbers. Let us join you.” He motions quickly back and forth between himself and Pete who is stomping toward him, reaching out like he is going to strangle him when he gets to him. “Me and my best bro, Pete, we’re gonna get the Tag Belts of Power from Fish and that other guy, you see. If one of you can get the NXT Belt of Power and the North American Belt of Power, we’ll have a bunch of belts. Then we gotta figure out how the magic works and we’ll kick asses. Super-bros.”

As Pete reaches him and grabs onto his arm, they all hear someone say, “She’s coming.”

Silence rushes the tavern like a wave.

Ciampa looks at Pete and mutters a single word, “Sit.”

Even Matt quiets as he and Pete pull chairs up to the table. A deck of cards appears in Dijak’s hands and he doles them out along with a pile of coins that he drops haphazardly into the center of the table. Johnny begins chugging the ale that was gifted to him.

The door to the tavern swings open a moment later and they all make like they’re in the midst of an intense poker game as the door slams into the wall. The Queen of Spades stands in the entrance with two shadowy figures behind her – Jessamyn and Marina. Shayna saunters in, flaunting the NXT Women’s Belt of Power, unafraid of challengers. She scans the room and then proceeds to the bar, flanked by the Horsewomen.

The conversation begins to pick up again as she takes a seat. Matt looks at his cards, and says, “Bros, I’ve got a full house.”

“Yer not supposed to tell everyone what cards ya have, ya fuckin’ idiot,” Pete elbows him in the ribs and he lets out a loud oof before gasping to catch his breath again. Pete throws his coin pouch in front of him on the table, “Let’s do this proper then.” He points to the coins that Dijakovic threw onto the table, “That the buy-in?”

“Guess so,” he says and they begin to earnestly play because they can’t very well discuss anything with Shayna just a few feet away.

Several hands in, Shayna gets up. She looks around casually, tosses some coins to the bartender and then begins moving toward their table with her belt flung over her shoulder. She sits on the end of the bench, shoving Johnny into Ciampa. She asks, “So what are you up to, guys? Cards? Deal me in.”

It’s Ciampa’s deal and he gives her the most pleasant smile he can muster, hoping his beard is scruffy enough to obscure how absolutely insincere it is. He deals her in, and the playing continues, very seriously and too quietly.

Keith is afraid they aren’t talking enough, and it seems suspicious, so he says, “And how are you doing on this fine evening, Shayna?”

“Oh, you know,” she looks at her cards and frowns. “I’ve killed everyone that’s come after my belt, so that’s good. Have you heard of anyone else thinking about coming for my belt?”

“Uh uh. Nope,” he answers.

They all mutter nopes of agreement.

“Is that so?” She asks as the game continues. “None of you happen to know the whereabouts of one, Rhea Ripley?” The men all shake their heads. She raises her bet when it comes back around to her and asks, “What about Bianca Belair?” More negatory head-shaking occurs. “You guys wouldn’t lie to me, right?”

A chorus of nos and absolutely nots follow, and the game continues without incident. Shayna doesn’t win and doesn’t seem upset. She tosses her cards down, bids them farewell, rallies her troops and starts to leave. They keep playing and try to keep an eye on her without it being apparent that they’re keeping an eye on her.

She hesitates at the door and turns back around. She looks right at Ciampa. He looks down at his cards. Her eyes then drift to a table near the door where Jordan Devlin and some other refugees from the Realm of NXT UK are sitting. She locks eyes with Jordan who freezes. In a split-second, she is standing in front of him with her hand in his chest. Everyone sees her hand sunken into him before they hear the snapping noise of his rips being broken by her fist.

The man’s mouth falls open and he blinks. He tries to speak, but only a gurgle comes out, followed by a rush of blood. His head lolls back as Shayna rips her hand out from inside of him. His ribs crack more and there is a sickening suction noise. Her fist is covered with blood up past her wrist. She looks around the room, her face expressionless and then she kicks his chair over, sending his body rolling onto the floor.

Ciampa is looking up again. Everyone is looking up at this point. It’s unavoidable now and they’re all frozen by the scene that played out in mere seconds, for seemingly no reason. Shayna’s eyes wander back to Ciampa. He stares at her coldly but does not move. She smiles and then leaves, closing the door behind her.


	6. Where's Becky? Where Is Becky?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, we locate Becky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-6-Wheres-Becky--Where-is-Becky-ei9ubb)

Charlotte can hear the Universe chanting. A thousand voices are saying Becky’s name in perfect unison and as loudly as they can over and over. The cosmic observers of Pinfall are behind Becky and whatever it is she’s doing, which is probably just standing around holding her belts, Charlotte suspects. They cheer when she’s doing nothing, when she picks things up, when she wears sunglasses and when she takes off said sunglasses. It makes it easy to find her at least – just follow that incessant chanting.

Charlotte finds that she’s actually completely wrong when she finally spots the redhead in the middle of a farm near the border of SmackDown. Both of Becky’s belts are on the ground haphazardly and two people are standing over her, kicking her as she tries to ball up and protect herself. She’s screaming, “Get off me, ya stupid women! I’mma kick yer asses as soon as I get up!”

Her assailants are the IIconics. There’s no Referee in sight, making it an unsanctioned fight. They’re not after either of her belts, they just want to beat the shit out of her – a sentiment Charlotte understands to a degree. She observes quietly from a distance where no one can see her, perched on the roof of the farmhouse.

“I’m gonna kill ya both!” Becky yells at them and they continue their attack. They’re being oddly silent.

The chanting for Becky is endless and Charlotte wonders what Becky did to piss the two of them off. When Billie bends down to grab Becky by her hair, Peyton stomps into the nearby barn and disappears. A Referee materializes, which means someone in the heavens decided to make the match official for whatever reason.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

Peyton emerges from the barn with a steel chair. The Referees have gone insane and every fight is apparently a no DQ streetfight now from the looks of things. This is definitely a sign of the impending Wrestlemania, which Becky has been conveniently denying for weeks while parading around Raw and SmackDown with her two belts, high-fiving children, and drowning everyone in puns and dad jokes while taunting all of the other Champions.

Charlotte watches a bit longer. Becky claws at Billie, but Billie manages to keep her down and still enough for Peyton to swing the chair into her face. This knocks her onto her back again and Charlotte finally intervenes. Not wanting Becky to lose either of the Belts of Power, at least not to the IIconics, and also not really wanting Becky to get herself killed in a handicap match, Charlotte sighs and makes her entrance.

Music sounds and the two women look up slowly. Peyton drops the chair, startled as Charlotte swoops onto the scene transforming from raven into herself as she descends. The voices cheer her, which is odd and jarring. She’s only being cheered by proxy and she knows this, but it’s fine. With a flick of her wrist, Peyton goes flying back into the side of the barn where she slides down onto a bale of hay.

“What are you two doing?” Charlotte asks Billie, hoping for some sort of sensible explanation for the two of them attacking the dazed and bleeding Irish woman laying on the ground, now writhing around holding her face. “Are you each going to take one of her belts? Who decides who gets which one?”

Billie doesn’t answer. Instead, she cocks her head to one side and Charlotte notices that something is wrong with her. Her skin is an unhealthy pale and her eyes are rheumy and clouded like they’re filled with cataracts. Her lipstick is smeared haphazardly across her cheek, and the most notable oddity is that she isn’t shrieking or doing weird poses. She lunges toward Charlotte with some off-kilter jerking motions but ends up meeting Charlotte’s boot with her face. She falls back and Charlotte looks down at her. She purses her lips and ties to make sense of what’s happening then kicks her in the side of the head as hard as she can, knocking her out. She continues twitching, so she isn’t dead. Unless she was already dead…

Peyton somehow got back to her feet and is shambling toward Charlotte. She has the same sickly appearance as Billie and the same almost marionette-like movements. Charlotte snatches the chair up and clocks her in the side of the head then begins looking her over as she wiggles on the ground following the impact.

“Oh, no,” Becky mutters from where she’s lying on the ground still. “I’ve died. I must be dead for yer stupid ass to be the one rescuin’ me. This is my punishment in the afterlife. Constantly bein’ rescued by my archnemesis.”

“You’re not dead and I’m not your archnemesis, you dipshit,” Charlotte tells her before driving the chair into Peyton’s head so her wiggling lessens. She then says to Becky, “Now get up. We need to go. There’s something weird going on here.”

Becky groans then sits up shakily and rubs her neck. She glares at Charlotte and wipes a bit of blood from her nose, flinging it toward her. She eyes her suspiciously, waiting for her to attack her after coming to her aid.

Charlotte tosses the chair aside and looks toward the Referee instead, “Call the match. It’s done.”

He doesn’t move and looks at her expressionlessly.

“What’s goin’ on?” Becky asks, not really speaking to Charlotte, but as a general expression of confusion at the entire series of events.

“I don’t know…” Charlotte confesses. “I think the IIconics are possessed, but by what, I don’t know exactly. I have no idea what’s up with this stupid Referee. I think he’s broken.”

“That’s a first. The Queen admits she doesn’t know something. If that’s not a sign of Wrestlemania, I dunno what is,” Becky says, getting to her feet.

“Shut up,” Charlotte slaps her and then glowers.

“Ow,” she whines and touches her cheek, frowning, “That was uncalled for. I just got hit in the face with a chair.” She motions to the Referee, “Why’s he not endin’ this? They’re both down.”

Charlotte raises her hand in an attempt to silence her so she can listen. “The bell wasn’t for them…” She tells her quietly and her eyes dart around the barnyard. In the next second, she’s diving in front of Becky and then yells out, “Ah! Shit!”

Becky’s eyes widen as soon as she sees the crossbow bolt sticking out of Charlotte’s bicep that probably would have hit her in the chest. She quickly makes the assessment that the shooter is hiding somewhere in the small copse of trees directly across from the barn. It’s a good distance away and up a hill, giving her challenger quite an advantageous vantage point.

“Grab your stupid belts and let’s go,” Charlotte growls at her between her teeth and looks angrily at the bolt in her arm, but extends her hand.

“I’m not runnin’ from a fight. What kinda Champion would I bet if I just took my belts and bailed?” She protests. “I’m gonna go rip the face off whoever is tryin’ to shoot me.”

“Whoever the fuck this is just ruined my robe,” Charlotte comments and ignores her. “Now let’s go.”

“I don’t need ya to protect me, Charlotte,” Becky insists and shoulders past her. “I never did.”

Charlotte tackles Becky to the ground as another bolt goes whizzing by. She groans and winces with the first bolt still sticking out of her arm, “Trust me, this is not something I enjoy much, but someone is trying to kill you and take your belts.”

“Someone’s always tryin’ to kill me and take my belts because I’m the-”

Charlotte slaps her again, “Do not list your accolades right now.”

Becky is interrupted only briefly and she struggles out from under Charlotte and kicks her in the stomach. “Fine. I’ve beaten everyone and I’ll keep beatin’ everyone that comes after me. I don’t know what yer doin’ here or what ya want but-”

She is interrupted again but this time by another bolt that Charlotte manages to catch in her fist just in front of her face. Charlotte snaps it in her hand and throws it at her then rips the other bolt out of her arm and throws it at her as well, spattering her with more blood. She scowls and gets up saying, “Asuka’s after you too, by the way.” She raises her arms in surrender and shouts toward the trees, “She’s all yours, whoever you are, but I’m going to kill you after because you shot me in the arm!”

Becky gets to her feet and squints in the direction of her challenger. She asks Charlotte, “Who do ya know that uses a crossbow? Ranged weapons are for cowards.”

Another bolt shoots toward Becky’s legs this time, but she side-steps it. Charlotte looks at her, “Are you talking to me?”

“I’m askin’ ya a question since yer an all-knowing demigod,” she tells her and starts toward the trees.

“Haha,” she responds sarcastically. “You don’t need me and never did. Please, run in a zig-zag tho so you don’t die before you get to whoever the hell is shooting at you.”

“Gosh, it’s almost like you care about my well-being,” she dodges another bolt and begins moving quicker.

Charlotte remains back, saying nothing else, and crosses her arms as Becky continues forward yelling insults. A bolt comes again toward Charlotte and plants itself at her feet. Was it some sort of warning shot or is this person really bad at using a crossbow and the other shots were lucky? It becomes quickly apparent that it is the former and Becky takes a bolt to her thigh.

“Shoulda serpentined, Becks,” Charlotte calls after her. “You never fucking listen to me.”

“Come out, ya stupid cowardly twat!” Becky ignores Charlotte and yells at her assailant as she continues advancing while blood drips down her leg.

They both hear a laugh and see a figure jump down from a tree limb. Charlotte looks and does a bit of a double-take. She asks Becky, who is closer, “Is that Liv Morgan?”

“Yah,” she answers this time. “She’s dressed like a fuckin’ nun or something.”

The gears begin turning in Charlotte’s head and she mumbles, “Oh, no…Becky, you idiot!”

Becky rips the bolt out of her leg, with a gross tearing noise and a spirt of blood. She clenches it in her fist for a moment before throwing it aside, “Leave me alone, Charlotte!”

Charlotte charges forward as Liv loads another bolt into her weapon and she grabs onto Becky’s shoulders, yanking her onto her back and into the dirt, ending her approach. The voices ringing out from around them start to boo her. Becky chants are mixed in and Becky drags herself along the ground to grab onto Charlotte’s ankle and trip her as she begins moving toward Liv instead.

Liv watches them and laughs, “Becky, this is actually a triple threat. She’s here for your belts and she’s coming to defeat me to win them because she can’t beat you. Didn’t you notice how the bell rang right before she showed up?”

Becky groans and pulls Charlotte toward her to give her a punch in the side, “Sounds about right…would explain why yer here outta the blue.”

“She’s lying, you asshole!” Charlotte tries to kick her off. “Ask the Referee!” Becky looks back over her shoulder and the transparent man shrugs. “What the fuck?!” Charlotte yells at him and grapples with Becky who has climbed on top of her to begin wailing on her face. She uses her arms to try to block the attacks while Liv continues laughing in the background and the voices are chanting for Becky.

“Why can’t ya just leave me alone? I’ve beaten yer ass all across Pinfall. Just accept that I’m better than you, would ya?” Becky taunts and continues throwing punches. “Did ya really think I’d fall for ya bein’ here to genuinely help me? Taking a crossbow bolt in the arm was a nice touch though.”

“God dammit, Becky! You stubborn idiot!” Charlotte screams at her and then says, “I can’t believe I’m doing this…” She groans and throws a weak knee up into Becky’s ribs. There’s a poofing noise and Becky falls down on top of mostly air and also a raven. The bird is flapping wildly on the ground under her instead of Charlotte. Becky latches onto one of her wings and yanks out a few feathers causing more violent flailing until Charlotte’s claws get purchase in the dirt. She bats Becky a few times in the face with her other wing before getting upright and then flying quickly away as the Universe cheers for her departure from the match she wasn’t even part of.

“Whoa. Charlotte Flair just up and abandoned a fight for not one, but two Belts of Power. That’s wild. It’s like a Wrestlemania is upon us. I guess it’s one-on-one now,” Liv shrugs and begins walking toward Becky. “Or maybe it was just us the entire time? It’s so easy to make you turn on Charlotte.”

With another groan, Becky rolls over and looks toward her. She smirks, “Don’t give yerself too much credit, Liv. Ya can’t really turn on someone ya don’t trust at all.”

“Liv?” She questions, sounding confused and standing directly above her. She’s wearing dark makeup around her eyes and the rest has a subtle clown-look or maybe a corpse or a clown corpse. The tunic of her habit is in tatters, ripped short, but not too short. The wimple is dirty and also a bit bloody. Her veil is lying on the ground by the tree and her coif pushed back onto her shoulders. She aims the crossbow between Becky’s eyes and pulls the trigger.

Becky rolls quickly to the side and gives her a firm kick in the knee. The bolt embeds itself deep in the soil and Becky stands up, driving her shoulder into Liv’s midsection. She fluidly knocks the crossbow from her hand before wrapping her fingers around her neck. Liv gasps and Becky realizes quickly that she’s trying to laugh while being strangled. She’s also not fighting her at all and seems to be enjoying the encounter. Becky isn’t aiming to actually kill her nor turn her on or whatever is happening. Startled by this, she lets her go and takes a step back.

“That was dumb,” Liv says to her. Her voice is scratchy sounding but she’s grinning. She lunges and locks her arms around Becky’s waist then hoists her up and over her back for a belly-to-belly suplex. Becky crumples on the ground and Liv gets back to her feet quickly. She wraps her arms around her again and flings her over in a belly-to-back, again leaving Becky in a crumpled, groaning heap.

Becky manages to roll over and begins to scramble on her hands and knees toward the crossbow. It doesn’t have a bolt in it but at the very least she can hit her with it. Her fingers grasp one of the limbs. She winces and tries to pull it toward her but she can’t because Liv has one foot on the bridge. Liv kicks the weapon away from both of them and then stomps on Becky’s hand. She digs her heel in, grinding her fingers into the dirt.

“Yer not gettin’ my belts,” Becky clenches her jaw and grabs onto Liv’s other leg with her free arm.

“Becky! Becky!” The voices are chanting, rallying her. The farmer and his family emerge from their home to investigate the hullabaloo and are watching from the porch. They too begin cheering her on.

“I don’t want your belts,” she tells her. “I want to destroy you. The belts are a secondary concern.”

She claws into Liv’s skin, but Liv is unaffected and just laughs more. Becky begins yanking at her other hand, trying to free it from under the sole of her shoe. Her flesh tears and she thinks she hears bones cracking, but she doesn’t feel anything. All she feels is anger and a very strong desire to put on a good show for the farmer and his family, as well as the mysterious voices of the Universe. She has to win. No matter what. They want her to win and she can’t let them down.

With a sudden surge of strength and determination, Becky gets her hand free, but it takes ripping the skin from her last three fingers. She’s also pretty certain at least two are broken. She immediately latches onto Liv’s legs with both of her arms and rips them out from under her. She falls and Becky is on top of her immediately, throwing punches with both of her fists into her face like she did Charlotte, only Liv isn’t attempting to block her strikes at all. She also can’t quite make a fist with her left hand anymore, so those hits are more like weird slaps. Liv is laughing as Becky breaks her nose and probably one of her eye sockets then her lip, her bleeding hand also flinging her own blood all over the scene.

“Quit laughin’, you fuckin’ psycho!” Becky screams at her and grabs two handfuls of her blonde hair and she begins slamming the back of her head into the ground.

Liv abruptly stops laughing. Not because Becky has killed her or even knocked her out. She is taking a hell of a beating and it doesn’t seem to actually be wearing her down at all. She just stops laughing and she begins staring past Becky. She looks like she is listening very intently to something. She then nods her head amid the bashing. Disturbed again, Becky stops. She keeps her pinned this time. Her knees on either side of her and her hands pressing her shoulders to the ground.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

The Referee is approaching with Becky’s belts and ushering her off of Liv, she sits up but doesn’t let Liv go. Liv lays on the ground, her nose and mouth bleeding, and several lacerations also streaking her face. She has blood in her hair and her arms are splayed out. With no warning whatsoever she leans in and licks Becky’s cheek with her full tongue, from her jawline all the way up next to her eye. Becky is startled by this and Liv takes the opportunity to scuttle out from under her.

“What the fuck is goin’ on?” Becky asks no one in particular and she tries to wipe the saliva from her face but only smears blood and dirt around. She sits on the ground and takes her belts from the Referee. She remains sitting and holds them in her lap with her broken hand hanging limply next to her.

The farmer’s family is cheering from the porch and the Universe is roaring. Liv continues crab-walking away and staring at her the entire time. She calls back after a few moments, “You are the Chosen One. He says it isn’t time for you to fall yet so I guess I’ll see you at the Wrestlemania.”

“What?” Asks Becky, even more dumbfounded. She has had the most bizarre day.

Liv then appears to melt into the ground and is gone.

She watches the Referee fade. The farmer and his family bring her ice and bandages. She waves them away as politely as she can and gets to her feet. Blood drips from her mutilated fingers but she ignores it. She carefully tucks both of the belts into her pack, hearing Liv’s last foreboding words echo over and over in her mind.

She manages to high-five the children with her good hand and then she picks up the crossbow and the bolt Liv shot into the ground and she moves along. She can’t help but think that the thing she fought was not actually Liv Morgan, it just looked like Liv Morgan, and what was that bullshit about the Wrestlemania and being the Chosen One?

“Mind games,” she mumbles as she hobbles up the road, seeming to remember that she has a large puncture wound in her thigh as well. “Just a buncha mind games.”

But that wasn’t any version of Liv Morgan she’d ever met before. Something was also very wrong with the IIconics – that was true.

When out of earshot of any people, making sure there’s no one else on the road with her, she shouts, “Charlotte! Where are ya? I’m sure yer around here somewhere because I can’t seem to get ya outta my ass no matter how hard I try.” She sighs, “And now I suppose yer actually not around the one time I want ya, of course, because I ran ya off when you maybe weren’t actually after the belts.”

There is no response and she scans the sky for any sign of the huge, ominous bird. She sees some smaller birds, regular little blackbirds. She’s covered in dirt and blood and she limps northward in the direction that Charlotte the raven flew.


	7. BlissCross Journey to the Forgotten Lands of Nitro: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexa and Nikki are officially on a quest to obtain the magical, legendary Ancient Contracts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-7-BlissCross-Journey-To-The-Forgotten-Lands-of-Nitro-Part-1-eii4uv)

Alexa and Nikki decide they won’t stay in a hotel on the first night of their travels, not that they would come across one in the remote area of the Realm of Raw that they found themselves in. It was nearly nightfall when they finally made their way out of Parts Unknown. There is a road in the lightly forested area, but it looks like it hasn’t been used in years, maybe decades, maybe longer – neither of them can tell. They begin to follow it because it leads vaguely north and that’s the way they want to go.

“I really didn’t want to set up camp in Parts Unknown,” Alexa lets out a sigh of relief as she pulls out their map. She flips it over several times and squints at it, “I think we’re somewhere here.” She shows Nikki. “This road isn’t on the map…I guess because no one uses it anymore because it leads to Parts Unknown and then stops or maybe it used to connect to that road that went through that town. Maybe we can find some old maps in the Forgotten Lands. There’s gotta be other loot there for the taking, right?”

“Probably,” Nikki nods her head enthusiastically in agreement with everything Alexa said.

“Let’s keep going and set up camp after nightfall. We should try to cover as much ground as possible,” Alexa tells her. She continues moving up the road, hovering about a foot off of the ground, her wings sparkling in the fading sunlight. They give off a faint glow of their own as well. She folds the map and tucks it away.

Nikki watches the trees for any movement, although without belts they aren’t really targets. Unless their enemies have gotten wind of their grander mission and aim to stop them from reaching the Ancient Contracts. Alexa doubts this, but Nikki is much more cautious. Nikki had very much been right about stopping at the hotel on their way to the New Day’s safehouse and Alexa considers acknowledging this, but then decides against it. She isn’t entirely sure why she does this.

They don’t speak much. Alexa leads the way, emanating a bit of light that proves useful after the sun has completely set. Nikki makes sure no one is following them. They are both tired.

“There’s a clearing up ahead,” Alexa points. “We can camp there unless you have some reason to object.”

“I’ll check it out,” Nikki says and moves ahead of her to investigate the small area slightly off of the disused roadway. It’s not a large clearing but is large enough for their tent. Nikki looks around, wandering a bit farther into the trees. There’s no sign of anyone. No lights, no sounds that are out of the ordinary just crickets, frogs, and nightbirds. She begins pitching the tent and Alexa gets out the map again. Alexa doesn’t like camping very much. For a forest sprite, she doesn’t care for the forest, which is why she does not live in a forest with the rest of her kind.

As Nikki tries to get the tent set up and Alexa stares confusedly at the map, Charlotte comes swooping down silently from the sky and lands on Nikki’s shoulder. Nikki lets out a bloodcurdling scream, drops the tent stakes and begins swatting at the bird. Alexa lets out a startled yell, unsure what’s happening, and then covers her mouth so as not to alert anyone nearby on the off-chance someone is actually nearby, but it doesn’t really matter because Nikki is shrieking vulgarities mixed with thickly-accented gibberish.

“Fuckin’ shitbird! Gonna break yer fuckin’ wings, piece-a-shit!” The Scotswoman is screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Nikki! It’s Charlotte! Stop!” Alexa realizes.

“She’s fuckin’ attackin’ me!” Nikki continues her string of very loud profanities.

The bird flaps its wings and beats Nikki’s face then takes flight again and lands nearby, transforming into the tall blonde woman. She’s chuckling slightly but looks a bit worse for wear.

“Yer not as funny as ya think ya are,” Nikki says bitterly and picks up the stakes to continue setting up the tent.

Charlotte leans against the trunk of a tree at the edge of their little clearing and her laughter subsides. She watches Nikki struggle with the tent and then touches her bleeding lip. Alexa eyes her curiously and then sends an orb of light to hover over Nikki so she can see what she’s doing with the tent since moonlight isn’t getting the job done. She then looks back at Charlotte and asks, “What are you doing here?”

“Checking on your progress,” she answers as she then looks down at her arm and frowns.

“What happened to you? I feel like you want me to ask.”

“Doesn’t make any difference to me whether you ask or not,” she tells her as a bit of light comes from her fingertips and begins to heal the hole in her bicep. It can’t heal the hole in her robe as that requires a tailor. “I had a little run-in with the Kingdom of Pinfall’s Favorite Champion, Becky Lynch, since you so kindly informed me that Asuka is looking for her.”

“Looks like she kicked yer ass again. That bodes well for her joinin’ us to fight the Forces of Evil,” Nikki says snarkily from where she’s working on the tent still.

She pays no mind to Nikki and speaks to Alexa, “If you time your progress accordingly and if I know Becky as well as I think I do, you’ll run into her tomorrow on your way north,” she shrugs. “She may or may not join you…assuming she’s still alive - I’m sure she is. I’m starting to think she might be immortal, but I digress…at the very least you may be able to expose her to the reality of the impending Wrestlemania. I think it would be wise not to mention our shaky alliance, of course.”

“You said earlier not to concern ourselves with Becky,” Alexa reminds her.

She answers as if this is completely unimportant, “I changed my mind.”

“The whole point of us going north was that we can go without drawing attention…” Nikki also points out. “She’s got belts.”

Charlotte shrugs.

“Why do I get the feelin’ we’re yer pawns fer some sorta bigger plan?” Asks Nikki, turning to look at her accusingly.

“Because you are,” she tells her flatly then crosses her arms. “Don’t even think about challenging her for either of her belts.”

“Why would we-” Alexa starts to ask.

“She wants ‘em fer herself,” Nikki interrupts.

Charlotte rolls her eyes. “I was just saying to resist the temptation. The draw of the Belts of Power has gotten stronger as the Forces of Evil grow stronger. Also, the SmackDown Women’s Belt is cursed, so let Becky keep it.”

“I’ve held that belt. How is it cursed?” Alexa asks.

She looks at her and visibly contemplates whether or not to tell her. Her brow furrows and a few moments later she says, “Some of the belts require a trade - or a sacrifice of sorts - in order to use their power. That belt is of them. Let Becky keep it, she’s made the trade already. No need for either of you to do it.”

Nikki and Alexa both look at her doubtfully then Nikki pulls some rations from her pack for her and Alexa. She doesn’t offer anything to Charlotte except another question, “What all do ya know about the Belts of Power then since ya know so much since yer the daughter of a god?”

She squints at Nikki in the dim light and says, “The resent is really not necessary.” She sighs and then goes on, “I only know about a few anyway. The 24/7 Belt of Power grants the holder super-speed and endurance, which R-Truth has utilized quite well. He’s made a decent messenger so long as the messages are simple.” She pauses, not extremely interested in this conversation, “The Universal Belt of Power, which is unfortunately in the possession of the Fiend, absorbs the magic of everyone defeated by its holder.”

“Holy shit,” Alexa and Nikki both say in unison.

“It’s been a while since it belonged to someone that actually used its power. A few here and there have used the powers of the belts on accident, which is what Becky is doing with her belts. She thinks it’s all her and she doesn’t believe in any of this. As I said, the SmackDown Women’s Belt of Power requires a sacrifice…” Her voice trails off and she shakes her head. “After a sacrifice is made, the holder is given the power of regeneration. Pair it with the Raw Women’s Belt of Power, which gives the holder the power of suggestion – mind-control, basically - and you have the present state of Becky Lynch, who was already a painfully stubborn piece of shit and now she’s basically unstoppable and everyone fucking adores her.” Charlotte pauses again, she clears her throat, making sure both of them are still paying attention and to her disappointment, they are. “The belts you two idiots had grant the wearers some limited chronokinesis. The SmackDown Men’s Tag Belts generate a pretty decent shield against damage that is depleted by attacks but can be recharged and reactivated after.”

“Woulda been useful,” Nikki mutters.

“No shit, Sherlock.” She uncrosses her arms, “And all of the belts can create portals to different places around Pinfall and can open and close the Gates to the Pits of Heel, of course. That’s all I know.”

Alexa backtracks, “So Becky accidentally made a sacrifice and triggered the powers of the SmackDown Women’s Belt of Power?”

“Yes, and this has made her an absolute pain in my ass,” she tells them solemnly, bothered that this is what Alexa has chosen to find the most interesting.

“How is that useful exactly? Some of the belts requiring a sacrifice…or a trade or whatever?”

Charlotte looks at her without expression. “The belts were created for the First Champions who fought in the First Wrestlemania, and many of them in the subsequent Wrestlemanias. They were the best at whatever they did and the most deserving of the belts, as decided by the Titan of Pinfall. The most powerful belts shouldn’t be wielded by just anyone, so they have a little catch is all. All Champions must be willing to make sacrifices during a Wrestlemania, am I correct?”

“What did Becky trade?” Nikki asks abruptly.

Charlotte then turns to her and smirks, “I have other places to be and no time to tell stories.” She walks up to Alexa’s floating ball of light and extinguishes it in her hand, casting them in darkness. Their eyes adjust and the moonlight prevents pitch blackness. Charlotte remains standing in the center of their small camp for a moment before she adds, “Before I forget, Liv Morgan is Sister Abigail.”

“Bray Wyatt’s sister?” Nikki questions.

“A nun, actually. Maybe Bray Wyatt’s sister too. Who knows? I think she can turn people into zombies or something. She may have killed the IIconics, but I don’t know for sure.” With that, she transforms again into the raven and vanishes into the dark night sky.

The two of them exchange a confused glance and then crawl into their tent and arrange their respective sleeping bags. Nikki breaks the silence, “They say Charlotte and Becky were friends once.”

“Yes,” says Alexa.

“Do ya suppose that was what Becky traded?” Nikki rolls over to look at her and whispers.

“Go to sleep, Nikki,” she tells her firmly.

“Or maybe it was Charlotte’s…” Nikki suggests, still talking. “Becky doesn’t even know she made any sort of exchange.”

Alexa sighs and says again, “Go to sleep, Nikki.”

“Aren’t ya curious?” She persists.

“No, I’m tired,” she responds. “Now go to sleep. We have a long way to go. Save your curiosity for morning. We’ll need something to talk about while we’re walking for twelve hours.”

“Goodnight, Lexi,” Nikki says with a sigh then and rolls back over.

Alexa lies awake for a long time thinking about exactly what Nikki mentioned. Alexa believed that both of Nikki’s theories were possibly correct. She knew the stories of Becky very well. She also knew the stories of Bray Wyatt, the current holder of the Universal Belt of Power. She shutters at the thought. 

The next morning, the two of them are awoken at sunrise by birds making a celebratory-sounding ruckus. Nikki doles out rations again and Alexa asks her, “You wouldn’t turn on me for a Belt of Power, would you?”

“Of course not, Blissy,” she answers without hesitation. “Can’t ya see into my soul anyway or whatever that secret fairy magic of yers is?”

Alexa laughs, “Yes. I was just double-checking, making sure my sprite magic still works.”

“We’re gonna get our tag belts back,” Nikki says optimistically. “Yer not gonna try to fight Becky and turn on me though, are ya?”

“God, no. We need Becky on our side in the Wrestlemania and that would also screw that up,” she laughs some more.

“Aye,” Nikki agrees. “Now let’s get goin’ and see if we can find her.”

Alexa gives her a nod, “Pack up the tent and I’ll scout a bit.”

Nikki does not argue in the slightest and Alexa flutters up above the overgrown road they’ve been traveling. She sees an expanse of green treetops and in the distance behind them, Parts Unknown. She looks at her map and if they keep going north and vaguely east, they should hit one of the tributaries of the Summerslam River, which will take them to the river which they can follow to the Hall of Fame. It looks like the old road leads in that direction. The Forgotten Lands of Nitro and Thunder are somewhere north of the Walls of Jericho, which mark the northernmost boundary of Pinfall.

“Blissy!” Nikki calls up to her.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go,” she says.

“You unpitched the tent a lot faster than you pitched it,” she points out and looks down.

“Well, it was dark and Charlotte was attackin’ me.”

“She wasn’t attacking you. I think she landed on you and then you attacked her.” Nikki looks at her with a bit of suspicion, and she adds, “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t trust her, per se. She doesn’t want Pinfall to be destroyed and I don’t think she’s going to kill us, at least not at the moment.”

“That’s nice,” Nikki begins walking up the road and Alexa remains above.

“Becky’s more likely to attack us than Charlotte,” Alexa then says. “She’s used to everyone coming after her belts constantly, so you can’t really blame her, but yeah.”

“What if Charlotte has sent us to run into Becky so Becky kills us?” Nikki muses.

“Good God, stop. Just give her the benefit of the doubt for two seconds.”

Nikki grunts, slightly displeased and then says, “Charlotte gives really vague instructions even when not sending messages with R-Truth. She talks a whole fuckin’ lot but never really says much.”

“Let’s just keep going the way we’re going. I’ll keep an eye out. Plus, we’ll probably start hearing those voices when we get close to Becky. We won’t miss her unless Charlotte is totally wrong.”

“She was wrong about us gettin’ to the safehouse,” Nikki feels the need to remind her.

“Clairvoyance isn’t a perfect science, and this isn’t clairvoyance. She actually saw Becky yesterday.”

“There ya go, defendin’ her again.”

Alexa glares down at the other woman, but she’s not looking up. She’s walking merrily down the road. “I’m not. I’m just saying. Before the First Wrestlemania all of the Four Realms were completely independent, and they came together to fight the Forces of Evil and became the Kingdom of Pinfall after.”

“Ya. We all know the bedtime stories, Lexi,” Nikki responds with a bit of attitude.

“What I’m saying is that a Wrestlemania can cause unlikely alliances to be formed for the good of Pinfall. Quit being dense.”

“Sorry,” she apologizes.

“It’s fine,” Alexa tells her.

They go on for a while quietly with Nikki humming a jolly tune and Alexa alternately looking at the map and scanning the landscape for signs of movement that could be Becky. Nikki breaks the silence and says, “Do ya think Charlotte knows more than she’s tellin’ us?”

“Oh, totally,” Alexa answers without any sort of pretense. Then she tells her, “It looks like our road tapers off in a few miles and we’ll run into one of the creeks that feed into the Summerslam.”

“What if we don’t find Becky? Do we just keep goin’ north?” Nikki questions.

“Yes. Becky is a bonus objective.” At that moment, a crossbow bolt goes whizzing by her cheek and she exclaims, “Who the hell?!” She scans the trees below her in the direction it came from, not entirely sure what it even was. She sees nothing and drops down onto the ground next to Nikki. She grabs her and pulls her to the opposite side of the road and into the bushes. She whispers, “Someone just shot something at me.” She points, “From that way.”

“Want me to kill ‘em?” Nikki asks eagerly.

“Maybe? We should probably make sure it’s not Becky. Who else would be out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“She shot at ya,” Nikki growls angrily.

Alexa slaps her hand over Nikki’s mouth and quickly shrouds them in a camouflaging aura as they crouch partially behind a tree and in a bush. She watches closely for movement on the opposite side of the road. There’s some rustling that sounds a bit larger than a squirrel and then a yell, “Hey, I didn’t hit you, did I?!”

Nikki mumbles something into Alexa’s palm that she ignores as she stands and questions, “Becky?”

“Bliss?” Becky asks from somewhere in the trees across from them and then again, “Did I shoot you?”

“Almost,” she answers and drops the aura.

“It was not on purpose,” she sounds sincere enough and then Alexa sees her in the distance walking toward her voice. Her face has some blood on it, her leg appears to have an open wound, and one of her hands is mangled. Alexa wonders if Charlotte did this to her. If so, Charlotte was the clear winner of their encounter. Becky continues talking as she approaches cautiously, “You see, I acquired this crossbow and I have no skill with ranged weapons and I’ve also got this injured hand.” She raises the dirty, bloodied mess with its crooked fingers that have chunks of flesh literally hanging off of them then she pauses to struggle with a plant that’s caught her stockings. She swats at it with the crossbow until she manages to get free then goes on, “I’m not any good with ranged weapons is what I’m sayin.’ I didn’t think it would be too hard, but then I didn’t mean to pull the trigger but this hand, you see.”

“You probably shouldn’t have had a bolt loaded,” Alexa says condescendingly and with a cringe. She can’t take her eyes off of Becky’s hand. Nikki gets up and stands next to her defensively.

“Yah, well, I wanted to have one loaded just in case I needed to shoot someone, since I had it,” she makes it out into the overgrown road and then stops a safe distance away to look at Alexa. “You don’t happen to have seen a certain unpleasant witch around here that likes to think she’s a queen, have you? She’s about yay tall,” she makes a point to use her wounded hand to indicate Charlotte’s height, amused that it bothers Alexa.

“Charlotte?” Nikki asks and starts to say yes, but Alexa elbows her in the stomach.

Becky raises an eyebrow at them and clarifies, “She didn’t do this to me if that’s what you’re thinkin.’ I think she may have been tryin’ to help me…for old time’s sake or somethin’ else she’s up to.” Becky looks around at their surroundings and adds, “Gettin’ the hell beat outta me by Liv Morgan dressed as a nun got me feelin’ a little sentimental so I’m tryin’ to find her. I can’t ever find her when I want her, but damn if she doesn’t show up to be a thorn in my side whenever I think she’s gone for good.”

“No, we haven’t seen her,” Alexa lies and grabs onto Nikki’s wrist. She tries to obscure that she’s doing this so not to draw suspicion to their dishonesty. “Do you need a bandage or a potion or anything for your hand?” She wonders where the supposed regeneration magic from the SmackDown Women’s belt is.

Becky looks them over and nonchalantly answers, “Nah. It’ll be fine. Where’s your belts?”

“Kabuki Warriors,” Alexa tells her.

“Ah,” she nods. “I hear Asuka’s lookin’ for me.” She then asks, “What’re you doin’ out here on one of the old roads to Wrestlemania?”

Alexa, curious about this new information, questions, “Old road to Wrestlemania?”

“Yah, there’s a bunch of ‘em runnin’ all through Pinfall. Some are completely overgrown now, but they lead to the Fields of Wrestlemania,” she hitches her thumb in the direction they had been going.

“We’re going to the Forgotten Lands-”

“You’re tryin’ to get the Ancient Contracts?” Becky interrupts her answer.

She gives her a nod and looks at her confusedly. “How do you know about all this?”

“Doesn’t everyone know the legends?” She asks. “Also, Charlotte. She used to talk incessantly about Wrestlemanias and the Forgotten Lands, and the belts and all that. There’s some weird shit goin’ on in the Realms. Referees are actin’ off. I got attacked by the IIconics who didn’t even want my belts, Liv said some really wild nonsense. I don’t know if I think this is all leading up to a Wrestlemania or not, but somethin’ is definitely goin’ on. I guess you’re some of the ones that believe in all that nonsense?”

“Yer a bit slow to the party,” Nikki blurts out.

The Irishwoman shrugs dismissively. “How about I come with you to get the Contracts? I’d like to see ‘em for myself. Touch some legendary artifacts with my own two hands.”

This took no convincing at all and Alexa says, “Yeah, sure. We could use some muscle.”

“I’m the muscle,” Nikki says with a startled gasp.

“More muscle,” she corrects quickly.

Becky raises her eyebrow at them again but doesn’t comment. She looks at the crossbow then takes a few steps closer and extends it out to Alexa, “Here. I don’t want this thing. Plus it’s outta bolts now that I accidentally shot the last one at you. Don’t challenge for either of my belts. I’d hate to have to kill people tryin’ to save Pinfall from the Forces of Evil. That is your goal, right?” She withdraws her offer of the crossbow, “You’re not bad guys? You’re the ones tryin’ to save the Kingdom?”

“Nah, not bad guys,” Nikki answers.

“I think we’re on the right side,” says Alexa. “But King Corbin and his court are also trying to save Pinfall, but they attacked the New Day and took their belts, so…”

“Eh, if you’re fightin’ over who gets to be the hero then you’re not the heroes, I don’t think, but what the hell do I know?” Becky hands her the crossbow and Alexa gets a look at her broken fingers that don’t look quite as bad she thought. That or they healed some as they stood there talking, which meant that Charlotte was telling the truth. She glances down at Becky’s wounded thigh and it doesn’t seem wounded at all, just bloody.

Alexa finally releases her grip on Nikki and takes the weapon. She looks it over. It’s elaborately carved and looks like it was once painted yellow and red, but almost all of the paint has rubbed off. There are still bits of paint trapped in the recesses of some of the engravings. Her brow furrows deeply. “Where did you get this?”

“Liv had it,” she tells her.

“Liv is Sister Abigail.”

“You can tell that from a crossbow?” Becky asks in disbelief.

“Yeah,” she lies. She does recognize the crossbow though – at least she thinks she does. She needs to confirm. She flings it over her shoulder and flies above them to say, “We’re stopping by the Hall of Fame. I’ll get some bolts there and maybe you can shower, Becky.”

“Am I that dirty?” She asks her with even more disbelief.

“Can I look at yer hand?” Nikki asks Becky, fascinated. Becky shrugs and holds it out to her as they walk along northward.


	8. The New Day, The Bard, and the Storm-Giant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The New Day meets up with a bard and then a storm-giant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-8-The-New-Day--The-Bard--And-The-Storm-Giant-eiq98d)

The rest of the SmackDown heroes remain together for the evening and they set up a small camp outside of Parts Unknown as well, but on the SmackDown side. They plan to go their separate ways in the morning with Sonya and Heavy Machinery heading toward the Ring at the southernmost point of Pinfall and The New Day going due south toward the mouth of the Summerslam River and the city of Smackville. 

“Something has been bothering me,” Xavier says in a rather dour fashion as they prepare their unicorns. “How did Roode and Ziggler know where to find us? Brock is in league with the Titan of the Underworld and the Titans are omnipotent, but Roode and Ziggler?”

“Strange times are upon us, my man,” Big E claps him on the back, not seeming to care much about his concern and just accepting the weirdness of it all.

“And Roode knew how to use the portal powers of the belts. How?” Woods persists. He has an uneasy feeling and red flags are going up in his mind, but he isn’t sure where they’re pointing.

“Corbin is King of the Ring,” Sonya gives him a shrug. “Maybe there are scrolls or something in the library of the castle?”

“Mmm,” Otis says pensively. “I’ll ask Ziggler before I punch his face in and grind him into a loose meat sammich. Ooh, yeah.”

Tucker nods and then says to the New Day, “We’ll find Roman. He’s had Corbin under siege for weeks. Hopefully, the Belts of Power haven’t turned the tides. He’ll join us if we can get him to wrap up this nonsense with the King.”

Kofi agrees and says, “Get those belts back. You two having them is the same as us having them.” 

He then extends his hand to Tucker, who he pulls in for a hug from the handshake and pounds his palm loudly into his back. 

They all bid one another farewell and provide customary well-wishes. Before they part ways, Xavier says, “We’ll send word when we’ve found Braun and then we can meet back at the safehouse to wait for word from Alexa and Nikki.”

They all agree.

Several hours into their journey, Kofi asks, “Do you suppose it could have been Braun that caused the storm the other night?”

“It did happen very suddenly,” Xavier ponders.

“I’ve been thinking,” Kofi begins. “It definitely is weird that Roode and Ziggler knew where to find us.”

“Oh, now you agree with me?” Xavier chuckles. 

Kofi goes on, looking oddly serious, “It’s also weird that Charlotte knew the location of our safehouse well enough to get R-Truth there and…” He pauses for dramatic effect and makes an enthusiastic upward hand motion like a televangelist in the middle of a sermon, “And furthermore, Charlotte can turn into a bird and can fly. Why did she send R-Truth with a vague message that resulted in us all losing our belts in order to meet with her for her to send us back this way and change all of our plans?”

Xavier and E look at him thoughtfully, and Xavier speaks first, “So are you on Team Charlotte Is Trying To Kill Us All now?”

“I’m merely pointing out that it’s all very suspicious and giving you two a pleasant reminder that the Witch Queen is called the Witch Queen for a reason,” he says sternly.

“Because she’s a witch?” Big E speaks with uncertainty like he’s playing a guessing game. “Queen of all the witches? Or is she a witch that is also a queen?”

“Well, yes. All of that maybe?” Kofi answers reluctantly but then gets back to what he was trying to communicate, “Witches are evil. Dark magic and shit.”

“Witches are just grumpy mages,” says Xavier.

Kofi sighs, “Mages use wands or staffs. They do spells. Charlotte uses nothing. She snaps her fingers and breaks peoples’ legs, man.”

“When did that happen?” Asks Big E, his eyes wide. “Whose legs did she break? Anyone we know?” 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that never happened,” Xavier says. “Druids don’t use wands and they turn into things. She turns into a bird, she does some low-key, kinda dark sorcery, and she sits alone in her castle looking into her crystal ball and does a shitty job seeing the future, so what? She’s a grumpy druid then.”

Frustrated, Kofi says, “Dammit. Druids use nature magic. There’s nothing natural about the shit she does.”

“Then I’m back to her being a grumpy mage with shapeshifting powers,” Xavier shrugs. “She’s got pseudo-god powers or whatever. I’m having some misgivings about all this too, but not about Charlotte.”

“Quit thinking so hard,” E tells them both.

“You’re missing the point. I’m saying that Charlotte has probably orchestrated this whole thing and we’re walking into a trap,” Kofi lowers his voice when he reaches the last part.

“Nah. She was nice,” E then insists. “Very hospitable in the middle of that ghost town. Nice robe too. I’m thinking I should get one but in teal and magenta. Black is a little too somber for me.”

“She used to wear colorful robes,” Xavier reminds him. “Before she started sulking in her castle.”

Kofi rubs his temples and says, “Guys, seriously.” 

Xavier hits him in the face with a pancake and shouts, “What has gotten into you, Kof? Is this because you were dead for a few minutes yesterday? It’s a new day. Pun intended.”

“Yes, it is!” Laughs Big E boisterously.

“You’re who got me thinking with what you said about Roode and Ziggler!” Kofi yells at Woods frustrated and throwing pieces of pancake back at him.

“Hey, not to interrupt, but is that Charlotte or some other big, menacing bird?” E points to a raven that appears to be circling them. 

“I don’t think a regular raven would be circling us while we’re alive,” Kofi comments, wiping bits of pancake from his cheek as he brings his unicorn to a stop. The other two follow suit. 

The raven’s circles get smaller and lower until it lands in front of them and transforms into Charlotte, as expected. Before she can begin what was surely about to be another monologue at them, Big E bellows as loud as he can, “Awwww Charlotte!”

Xavier takes it upon himself to then play a bit of royal fanfare on Francesca and the three of them begin to thrust around awkwardly on their unicorns that stomp and snort, unsure why they’ve stopped.

She closes her mouth and her eyebrows knit very tightly. She’s been completely derailed from whatever her train of thought had been and is frozen, perplexed. Seeing her expression, the three men sit very still, in horrified silence as she stands there looking at them like she may snap her fingers and break their legs. She suddenly bursts into riotous laughter, throwing her head back. Big E joins in, which causes her to stop abruptly, and she glares at him. He silences again.

Charlotte looks at Kofi with a sigh, “Having all of your come to me was a test. I didn’t intend for you to lose your belts, but I wanted to see if you cared about the fate of the kingdom enough to trundle into a cursed forest to talk to me. Not a single asshole from Raw did except R-Truth and I’m not sure he meant to.” She then looks at Xavier and starts talking to him like he’s a child, “What I saw in my ‘crystal ball’ was all of you together at your safehouse.” She makes air quotes around “crystal ball” and it is very apparent that she heard the entire conversation they were having. She composes herself again to continue, “Alexa and Nikki included. The Kabuki Warriors are who I saw attacking on the way to the Forgotten Lands. Not Brock. Not those other idiots. I don’t know what held up Alexa and Nikki, but it completely fucked my vision and you guys.”

“So that one thing threw it all off course?” Xavier questions.

She smiles, but looks completely livid and says, “That’s how seeing the future works. I only see one fucking future at a time and shit can change it.” Her gaze returns to Kofi, “I’m not going to keep explaining myself to you. Believe me or don’t. Braun is to the west. He has Sami, Shinsuke, and Cesaro held up in the Tower of Starrcade.” She then groans and says, “The Intercontinental Belt of Power grants the wearer telepathy. If I’m not honestly trying to save Pinfall, Braun will know as soon as he uses the belt’s magic. Why would I risk that?”

“Good point,” E nods enthusiastically and looks at his two companions for them to agree as well. 

Kofi remains quiet, but Xavier asks her, “Why now? Why do you want to save Pinfall now?”

“I always did,” she says quietly then turns back into the raven before any additional words can be exchanged. She flies so close to Kofi that he has to duck her ascent and she goes toward the east.

The three look at each other for several seconds and then Kofi reaches into his satchel to pull out his unicorn horn headband. He puts it on and turns his unicorn west, saying, “Well, I always wanted to make friends with a storm-giant.”

“To the west!” Big E exclaims and steers his unicorn toward their new destination. 

“To Starrcade!” Xavier also has his unicorn change direction. It rears up majestically on its hind legs and he holds Francesca high, the bright sunlight beams off of the well-polished instrument. He breaks away from the others to run ahead. Kofi and Big E quickly catch up and they gallop westward together across the open landscape.

~~~~~

Elias strums his guitar and hums a tune, testing out a melody. He is meandering down the side of the road with no particular destination in mind, just wherever the road he happens to be walking down leads. It leads to the Tower of Starrcade and he passed several signs that said as much, but he hadn’t been paying attention. 

The sun is beating down on him and he removes his shirt but keeps his scarf on then plays a chord, hums a complimentary note and sings, “Walk…with…Elias.”

He grunts a bit of approval at himself and continues walking. He closes his eyes, bobs his head a bit, hopes he doesn’t bump into anything and keeps playing the very cheerful tune that he’s composing. The music is cheerful at least, the lyrics will not be because SmackDown is going straight down the toilet – in his not-very-humble opinion. He’s pretty sure he can’t do much about it aside from composing a ballad that will be so epic that it will be recorded in the annals of history. He doesn’t think he stands much of a chance getting his hands on a Belt of Power and doesn’t know how to work them anyway. 

The clip-clop of a horse behind him causes him to open his eyes. He makes sure he’s still on the road and he is. The rider of the generic brown horse tips his hat and gives him a pleasant, “Howdy.”

“I am Elias,” he responds.

“Okie dokie,” says the man, as he moves along.

After strolling down the road to the rhythm of his playing, he begins to sing the song he’s been meticulously contemplating:

“ _Gather ‘round and hear a tale,_

_A tale of a once-great land._

_It starts several hundred years ago._

_The First Champions took their stand._

_The Forces of Evil spilled through a Gate_

_And wanted to kill us all,_

_But the Four Realms came together_

_As the Kingdom of Pinfall._

_Magical belts were given to_

_The likes of Hogan, Flair and Macho Man,_

_Andre the Giant, Cowboy Bob, Mae Young,_

_And…lots of other…men…and womans?”_

He trails off as he notices something shimmering in the distance. He squints trying to make out what it is. The iridescence is quite entrancing and he finds himself veering away from the road to move toward it. He swings his guitar to his back and raises his hand to create a visor to shield his eyes from the sun and attempt to see this sparkling thing that seems to be getting closer. Rainbows are spurting from it and he hears the faint stamping of hooves. 

“Unicorns,” he realizes and then raises his hand from his face to wave to the men. He flails his arm, “The New Day!”

The three change direction and start coming toward him. Elias continues waving, using both arms, ensuring that they see him. In a few minutes, the magnificent beasts are trotting around him on their glimmering mounts. He’s extremely glad to see them because he had heard they’d been lain to waste.

“What’s going on Elias?” Kofi asks him.

“Everyone thinks you’re all dead,” he says confusedly. “I’m glad you’re not.”

“Dead?!” They all exclaim in unison and then also laugh in unison.

He shakes his head, baffled, “It was the news out of the castle yesterday. You were killed by the demon dreadlord Brock Lesnar in a seven-second battle,” he points to Kofi. “And you two were killed by Ziggler and Roode.”

The three men looked at one another then back at Elias and Xavier says, “Which way are you headed?”

“That way,” he hitches his thumb over his shoulder. “Whichever way that is.”

“That’s going toward the Tower of Starrcade. That’s where we’re going,” explains Kofi.

“Mind if I go with you?” Elias gives them a hopeful look and then adds, “I need some more inspiration for this ballad I’m working on. It was going to be about how all of the hopes and dreams of Pinfall died with you guys, but I guess not now.”

“Yeah, come on,” Xavier says, happily. “Jump on with E. We’re going to help Braun get the Intercontinental Belt of Power. Afterward, you can go spread some songs about how we’re not dead and how we’re going to save Pinfall.”

“We’re gonna save the shit out of Pinfall,” E says, aggressively but with a very jolly expression on his face.

“We’re going to save it so hard,” grins Kofi as he throws a pancake at a traveler on the nearby road.

Big E helps Elias up onto the back of his unicorn, adjusting his saddlebags and bedroll. Elias makes sure his guitar is secure and then grabs onto the back of E’s long, flowing vest as they take off down the road. Xavier is out front tooting on Francesca: _doot doot-doot!_

Kofi throws pancakes at horses and their riders as they head for Starrcade, now a party of four. Commoners cheer when they see them and ask to be hit with pancakes. Kofi has a seemingly endless amount of pancakes in his satchel and obliges while E shouts for everyone to “Feel the power!”

Elias composes a short ditty as the grasslands turn into sandy coastal plains:

_“King Corbin said Kofi was dead,_

_Woods and Big E too._

_But it seems he was mistaken,_

_Or more likely lied to me and you._

_The New Day are alive and well._

_Roode and Ziggler best beware._

_On the Road to Wrestlemania,_

_They will surely see them there.”_

Soon, the impressive tower begins to rise in the distance. It has fallen into a state of disrepair but is no less magnificent. The great sandstone structure looks over the ocean. There had once been a light at the top that served as a beacon for ships, but the top of the tower was destroyed during a Wrestlemania. Only rubble sat at the top of the tower now. Sitting below the tower on a large chunk of said rubble is a huge man, at least twenty feet tall. He is sitting with his elbows on his knees and a giant ax at his feet, staring toward a high window of the tower, looking rather bored. 

Sami Zayn pops his head out of the window and spots the advancing unicorns. He shouts and points, “Ha! The New Day! Here to save us! Ha!”

Braun turns and looks toward them. He sees Elias and says, “No. I don’t think so.” He then yawns, stretches and tells him, “Just let Shinsuke come down. I don’t want to destroy another historical landmark.”

“Braaaaaun Strowmaaaaaaan!” Big E yells and his voice carries melodiously toward the rocky beach.

Braun raises a huge hand to wave. 

“Help!” Sami shouts, waving as well, but with both arms. “This monster has us trapped up here!”

The so-called monster among men sighs loudly and thunder rumbles in the distance although the sky is clear. “I challenged Shinsu-”

“He is an artist!” Sami shrieks, interrupting him. “Call him the Artist!”

Braun sighs again, “I challenged…the Artist, but Sami won’t let him come down from the tower and I don’t want to destroy the tower, so we’ve just been sitting here all day with this Referee floating around and not counting him out for whatever reason.”

The Referee is circling the tower, making laps, and happens to be coming around the front at that moment looking ghostly.

“The Artist should only fight people worthy of experiencing his prowess! This…this…this big, dumb storm-giant is not worthy!” Sami is screaming at the top of his lungs, thinking this will make him more convincing. 

“But if the bell rang and Referee appeared, that means one of the Titans sanctioned it,” Elias hops down from the back of E’s unicorn and motions toward the Referee that is drifting by.

“Fools! They know nothing! Nothing!” Sami is thrusting his fist around in the window, shouting at the sky.

“You suck! You suck!” The heavenly chorus begins to chant and Elias laughs, swinging his guitar back around to play.

The New Day are a little confused and remain back. Xavier asks his companions, “Why don’t we all just join forces? I don’t think Sami is a demon and it wouldn’t hurt to pad our side a little.”

“Join forces for what?” Sami asks, having heard the comment.

“For Wrestlemania,” Kofi tells him.

Sami’s eyes grow wide and he yells down in disbelief, “Wrestlemania?! What?!”

“We’re trying to unite the Champions of Pinfall to fight the Forces of Evil,” explains Kofi. “For a Wrestlemania.”

“Huh?!” 

“Can you not hear us now?” Big E asks him loudly.

“I can hear you, I just don’t believe the absolute nonsense you’re saying!” He makes a bunch of dramatic gestures symbolizing his mind being blown. “This is a trick so that we come down so that Braun can rob the Artist of his belt! He wants to steal it!”

Braun rests his elbows on his knees again and puts his chin in his hand. He looks at the four new people to join him, “This is what I’ve been listening to all day. All damn day.”

“Sorry, man,” Xavier apologizes to him, already bored with Sami himself, feeling his pain.

Sami is shrieking about the Titans and Wrestlemania and demons and some other nonsense that they’re all ignoring. Kofi asks the huge bearded man, “Why do you want this particular Belt of Power?”

He grunts, “I woke up one day and felt like I needed it.”

Big E attempts to whisper to Kofi and Woods, “Do you suppose Charlotte saw him with it, you know, in a future-vision in her crystal ball?”

Sami screams, “Charlotte?! You’re all in league with Charlotte Flair?! Sweet mother of fuck! Definitely not joining you now!”

Braun lets out a loud groan in response and clouds form overhead. He looks up and mumbles, “Whoops.” He turns on his rubble-seat to face the New Day, “I never put much weight in the signs and all that, never went after the singles Belts of Power, but it’s like I’m supposed to have this belt. This one in particular and I need it now.”

“Weird,” says Big E, again just accepting the weirdness of the circumstances they’ve found themselves in.

Elias, circling back around along with the Referee, says to everyone excitedly, “I have an idea!” Everyone looks at him and Sami leans slightly out of the window. “This can be a gauntlet match. Braun can fight Sami, then Cesaro, then Shinsuke.”

The chorus cheers loudly and the Referee stops and turns slowly to face Braun. 

“Whoa! The Great Liberator, Sami Zayn, does not fight!” His voice is getting more and more high-pitched with each word that he screams.

“I won’t kill you,” Braun tells him, smiling. “Not on purpose.”

“What about a handicap fight? All three of you against the big guy?” Elias then suggests. “Does that even the odds enough for you?”

The New Day watch on, intrigued and not entirely sure what is happening. They know that their job is to make sure Braun wins.

The Referee nods his head very slowly and then looks up toward the window at the top of the tower. He begins to count – a count-out – if the three of them don’t come down. His first finger goes up and he says in a deep voice, “One…”

“Those are not the rules!” Sami cries.

“Two…” A second finger goes up.

Sami suddenly starts laughing, “Shinsuke can’t lose the belt if it’s a count-out though, you idiots!”

Another voice chimes in, coming from all around them, it is the voice of Michael Cole, one of the Mouthpieces of the Titans, “This just in: Shinsuke Nakamura forfeits the Intercontinental Belt of Power if Braun Strowman wins by count-out.”

“What the actual fuck?!” Sami disappears from the window and they can all hear him yelling at Cesaro and Shinsuke, “Get down the stairs! Get down the fucking stairs! Oh, my God! What is happening?!”

“That is some Grade A Bullshit, Cole,” the voice of Cory Graves then chimes in. “No one has any respect for the Great Liberator.”

Elias starts to chuckle as the Universe cheers with excitement and Braun stands, picking up his ax, bolts of electricity snake around the blade and up his arm.


	9. Chapter 9: Undisputed Error

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boom!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-9-Undisputed-Error-ej8sml)

Ciampa reluctantly welcomes everyone into his cabin far outside of town, away from the bustle of civilization. The once-busy port city is not bustling so much anymore as nothing is coming from the Realm of NXT UK and no one is traveling there now either. But he lives far from all of the noise which is now mostly the sounds of panic and confusion. His cabin is perched at the top of a serene hill where he has lived alone comfortably.

He sits down at his desk in the corner and pulls out a blank piece of parchment, “Tell me everything, Johnny.”

The rest of the group mills around, bumping into one another, muttering vague apologies, and trying to find places to sit. There’s not really room for all of them and Pete ends up grumpily going outside to “keep watch” but in reality, he’s feeling a bit claustrophobic. He finds a log to sit on outside near a kettle on a spit. He crosses his arms across his fur-lined vest and listens for noises that shouldn’t be there. He looks out over the trees below.

Inside, Johnny relates to Ciampa the news he obtained from NXT UK and it was grim news indeed.

“Walter has the NXT UK Belt of Power and two of his cronies have the NXT UK Tag Belts of Power – they killed Gallus. Kay Lee Ray defeated Toni Storm and has aligned herself with Imperium. They have control of all of the NXT UK Belts. Noam Dar is dead, Flash Morgan, Dragunov, Kassius, even The Brian Kendrick – all dead. Imperium are destroying towns and killing anyone that does not swear fealty to Walter and the Forces of Evil.” Ciampa is scribbling quickly as he talks. “Moustache Mountain are missing. They may be in hiding here. There are whispers about two men with very distinct mustaches sneaking abroad the last vessel that left before Imperium sank every ship in the harbor.” He then stops abruptly and asks, “Who are you writing to?”

“A friend,” is his answer. He keeps writing. “Maybe an enemy. This might be the death of us all.”

“Who?” Johnny strokes his beard.

“A friend from the Realm of Raw,” he rubs his bald head and then continues penning the letter.

“Why haven’t they sent help?” He questions, his tone accusatory. “Why hasn’t someone come to stop Imperium? If you’re feeding information to someone in Raw, why-”

“I don’t know, Johnny,” he sounds fatherly and cuts him off. He turns and looks at him sternly.

Gargano can’t maintain eye contact with him for long. He looks away and begins to pace, his hands clasped behind his back.

“Oh, no. Bro,” Matt says looking out one of the small windows. He then scrambles for the door and shouts, “Bro!”

Everyone gets up and huddles in the doorway. Pete is on top of a man in a cloak. The man is face-down, and Pete is contorting his arm and bending his fingers in unnatural ways. “Who are ya?” He demands, “What’re ya doin’ out here? How do ya run so fast?”

“I’m a messenger!” R-Truth squeals. “I’m here for Tom Champion! Don’t break my fingers! I need those for stuff, man!”

“Who is Tom Champion?” Matt wonders aloud, dreamily.

“Thomas Columbo!” Yells Truth. “Maybe it was Tommy Chandelier! I dunno! I can’t think when there’s a man breaking my fingers! He’s a bald wizard with a beard! Lives in a shack that looks like this one! This man is breaking my fingers! Get him off me!” He’s talking incredibly quickly and kicking his legs.

Pete looks at Ciampa, realizing that’s who he means, and he releases his hold on Truth. He stands and straightens out his singlet but keeps a close eye on the supposed messenger.

R-Truth gets up and looks at his hand, making sure all of his fingers still wiggle correctly, “Y’all are not very nice out here. Everyone in NXT is real mean. Downright unwelcoming.” Satisfied that none of him is broken he looks at the group and says, “Which one of you is the bald wizard with the beard?”

They all look at one another and Ciampa stands there, befuddled, the only one among them that is both bald and with a beard and also a wizard, but the latter is not obvious.

“I think it’s you, bro,” Matt says and shoves him forward.

Ciampa swats his hands away and glares. He has the letter he hastily scrolled that contains all of the news from the NXT realms. He folds it and extends it to Truth who takes it and tucks it carefully into a pocket inside of his cloak. He then asks him, “Is there a message for me?”

“She wants an answer. She says you know the question. I don’t know what that means but give me an answer.” He then walks over and gazes down into the kettle. He frowns when he sees that it’s empty.

“A fucking riddle,” Johnny mumbles, approaching R-Truth and preparing to draw his sword.

“Huh?” Matt responds, thinking Johnny was talking to him.

Pete rolls his eyes and Dijak asks, “What’s going on? I’m confused.”

Keith shushes Dominik and studies Ciampa. The creases in the man’s forehead deepen. He doesn’t answer right away. It looks like he doesn’t know the mysterious question that isn’t being spoken, but then Keith sees the recognition register. It looks like a flame that begins to burn behind his eyes, which widen slightly. Ciampa answers with just one word, “Yes.”

Truth nods and says, “Alrighty. Nice to meet everyone. Sort of. Not that guy,” R-Truth looks at Pete. “Trying to break a man’s fingers when he’s just doing his job. This shit is starting to get beyond my pay grade!”

Johnny jumps him, putting him quickly into a side headlock. He demands, “Who sent you?!”

“Get off him,” Keith says, deciding to get involved. This is all very strange, but they are now living in very strange times.

“I can’t tell you,” R-Truth gasps and struggles around on his knees.

“Let him go, Johnny,” Ciampa says to him. “He’s just a messenger.”

He does as he’s told but doesn’t seem remotely happy about it. He kicks a rock toward the trees like the rock harmed him deeply. R-Truth gets up and dusts himself off again. He says, “As I was saying, nice to meet everyone.” He looks at Pete and then at Johnny, “Except you two. Y’all suck.”

With that, he runs down the path away from the cabin so quickly that he is barely visible. He is a blur that rips the leaves from the trees. The leaves all begin drifting down to the ground only after he’s out of sight.

“Whoa, he’s fast,” comments Matt. “I thought I was fast, but that man is real fast.”

“He has a Belt of Power,” Keith tells him.

“What was that about?” Johnny asks Ciampa. “You can’t just trust-”

“Stop,” he says to him flatly and then to everyone else, “We’re going to the Wargames Citadel and we’re leaving now.” He re-enters his cabin, looking very pensive.

Matt and Pete are packed and ready. They’ve been traveling around NXT fighting their way toward Undisputed Era’s tag belts that are just within their grasp if only they could find Undisputed Era to make the challenge.

“I’m still confused,” Dijakovic mumbles but goes inside with Ciampa.

“You owe us a little bit of an explanation. I’m going to go with you, but I’d like to be privy to the plan,” Keith also goes back inside and is speaking to Ciampa with his soothing, dulcet voice.

“We’re forming an alliance,” he talks cryptically. “I’m getting Goldie back.” He is dropping potions and bundles of herbs into his satchel. He then picks up a twisted wooden staff topped with a faintly glowing crystal orb. He taps the rod on the wooden floor, “We have to be the heroes now.”

“Alright then,” Keith smiles a little and begins filling his pack with items from Ciampa’s cabinets. Dijak begins packing up food and drink.

Keith observes quietly as Ciampa holds a vial up to the light from the window, he spins it a few times in his fingers, uncorks it and drinks it without a word. Keith isn’t sure what was in the vial as he is nowhere near an alchemy expert. He does know that Ciampa is withholding something from them, several somethings more likely.

Pete and Matt are arguing outside when the three of them emerge.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

They all look at one another and scan the hilltop for a Referee.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

_Ding-ding-ding!_

Three times. The bell sounds three times and three Referees materialize. One in front of them on the path leading to the road, the other can be seen a distance away in the trees, and there is a third next to the cabin.

“We’re being challenged?” Questions Keith. “We don’t have any belts and three at once? What’s going on here?”

“Boom!” Adam Cole struts up the path in front of them, doing some idiotic signs with his hands. The rest of Undisputed Era stand behind him, posing and making similar gestures. “I’m Adam Cole, bay-bay!” He says as if none of them know who he is. They all look at him blankly and he goes on, “The prophecy said we will destroy anyone that opposes us.”

“We’re here to kill all of you,” says Roderick Strong, pointing specifically at Keith.

“Pre-emptively,” says Bobby Fish.

“Yeah, before you become a problem for us,” Kyle O’Reilly finishes this little speech.

“Looks like they’ve come to us,” Pete smiles sadistically and speaks to Matt, staring at Fish and O’Reilly.

“Shove your prophecy up your ass,” Ciampa tells Cole and the orb at the end of his staff begins to pulse with brighter and brighter light. He wonders how many times these schmucks practiced their speech before showing up here. To his cabin. How did they know where it was? How did they know they would all be here? This is highly suspicious.

“There’s more of us than them,” Dijak says optimistically unsheathing two short swords.

“Actually…” Adam grins and then he again yells as he throws his arms into the air, “Boom!”

Cameron Grimes steps out from cover and tips his hat to Dominik and shouts, “Cameron Grimes!”

Austin Theory and Damien Priest also show themselves. They’re surrounded here on the hilltop where Ciampa thought they were safe. The Referees gather the belts for safekeeping.

“Maybe I’ll be getting Goldie back before we make an alliance,” Ciampa shrugs to Keith, unintimidated by a few extra men.

Keith nods and draws his broadsword. It begins to glow, a divine golden light shrouds him and a glowing crown of light materializes above his head. He looks at Roderick his eyes also radiating a heavenly light, “Come on, Roddy. You ready to bask in my glory?”

Matt kicks his flip-flops off toward Fish and one slaps him in the face. Angered and rash, Fish runs toward the two men and immediately meets Pete’s fist with his jaw. Matt puts his hands on his hips and tosses his head back to laugh. Chaos erupts a second later with Keith charging Strong, Cole driving toward Ciampa wielding two jagged daggers, and Dijak and Johnny moving on the other three men.

“We are the future of Pinfall! Everyone sees it! Everyone knows it! Except you!” Adam yells as he runs directly toward the wizard. “You are a remnant of the past! A relic! Magic is-”

Ciampa swings his staff and Cole collides with an invisible wall and is sent reeling. Ciampa laughs, “What were you saying about magic?”

Metal clangs against metal as Dominik’s swords clash with the blades of Grimes and Priest who are on either side of him. Theory has his eyes on Ciampa, but Johnny stands between them. Gargano has a longsword and a small buckler. He glows in a similar holy light like Keith, who is burning the ground under Roderick’s feet with holy fire and guffawing merrily. Roderick is screaming in frustration, prancing around, unable to even get to his opponent. Pete is manhandling Fish, hitting him with jabs in the ribs while dodging his sword swings gracefully. Matt is doing the same with O’Reilly, running circles around him, kicking him, and easily ducking and leaping over his cumbersome sword.

“Looks like you brought a bunch of swords to a magic fight, little man,” Ciampa says as he approaches the staggered Cole.

Cole is clutching his blades as he gets to his feet. He glares at Ciampa and bares his teeth. His grimace morphs into a smile and he disappears with a faint _poof!_

“What the fuck?” Ciampa whirls around, looking for him, but can’t see him anywhere. His eyes dart along the ground, looking for the grass being compressed, knowing that his opponent isn’t gone but is invisible – he has learned to use the magic of the belt, which means the rest of Undisputed Era know how to use their belts too. Ciampa puts Cole aside for a moment and yells over the sounds of clashing swords, “They’re using the belts!”

As if on cue, O’Reilly and Fish disappear and reappear on the other side of the cabin with a laugh. Matt and Pete look at one another. Pete laughs almost triumphantly, “Teleportation.”

Matt shrugs nonchalantly and says, “If that’s how they want to play, bro.”

Pete puts his mouthguard in. They bump fists and lock eyes with the other men, not surprised by the development.

Roderick Strong escapes the consecrated ground by quadrupling his size and stepping a single step onto a safe patch of grass. Keith chides him, “Bigger targets are easier to hit, Roddy.”

Dijakovic kicks Priest in the chest as he pulls his sword back for a strike, sending him toppling over a log then focuses both of his blades on Grimes. He spins the swords as he approaches. Grimes puffs up his hairy chest and clutches his sword hilt in both of his hands like a baseball bat. He slashes wildly at Dominik who dodges and then catches the man’s single blade between his two. With a quick turn of his wrists, he rips the man’s weapon from his grasp and sends it flying behind him.

“Come on back out, coward!” Ciampa commands and stands his ground. There is no sign of Cole. His eyes narrow. He has never been so focused before as he is now. He has to be – there’s an invisible man with two daggers trying to kill him.

Grimes starts backing away from Dijakovic. Dijak smirks. He slashes with his right sword then his left. Grimes keeps backing up just in time for each swipe. He quickly reaches into his pack and fumbles with a small flask. It is filled with a bright red, swirling substance that Dominik recognizes just before he throws it. Dijak dives to the ground and the flask shatters against the side of Ciampa’s cabin. In the next second, there is a roar as the wood is engulfed in flame.

“There goes your cabin,” Adam says in Ciampa’s ear, revealing his location.

Ciampa swings his staff low as he turns, but he doesn’t make contact. He searches the ground for signs of Cole’s location again but sees nothing. Cole may be a weaselly little shit but he does actually possess some skill, Ciampa acknowledges. Cole’s arrogance is not totally unfounded. The prophecy he was given served as fuel.

“Dijak!” Keith shouts as he sees Grimes pulling another flask from his pack. Keith momentarily turns from the giant-sized Strong and extends his arm. Dominik is surrounded by a shimmering golden bubble that appears just a fraction of a second before the flask shatters. The flames roar to life, swallowing the man and the grass around him in a ten-foot radius.

Grimes laughs, surprised at his own success, but his laughter fades as Dijakovic stands up in the center of the flames, unharmed as the magic bubble around him fades.

“I guess it’s time to get serious,” says Dijak.

Strong takes advantage of Keith’s momentary distraction and kicks him with a literal big boot. He skids across the grass, leaving a trench behind him.

Pete and Matt taunt Fish and O’Reilly, luring them farther and farther from the rest of the group. When they are a safe distance away, Pete bends down and touches his palms to the ground. The other two men look at each other and laugh at him. They don’t even seem to have realized that they’ve teleported themselves halfway down the side of the hill and expended a good portion of their belts’ magic doing so. Not all of the belts possess a bottomless reservoir of magic. Many require a recharge period between uses.

Keith jumps back up to his feet with surprising agility and moves quickly toward the much larger Roderick. Roderick goes to kick him again, but the paladin ducks and skids, slashing his sword across his ankle. Blood spurts as the blade cuts deep, ripping not only his skin, but slashing his tendons. Keith rolls out of the way as Roderick crumbles. His ankle can no longer support him, and he cries out in agony and surprise, shrinking back down to his normal size because he can’t maintain his concentration to use the belt-magic.

A rip appears in the back of Ciampa’s jeans and blood begins to soak the fabric. He turns, swinging his staff high this time, but again makes no impact. He growls and his cheek is next, a small cut under his eye. Cole is toying with him and his house is burning down. He twirls his staff and then plunges the end into the ground, surrounding himself in a slick sheet of ice. Shards shoot up from the sheet like razor-sharp fingers.

There is a sudden crunch and shattering noise. Ciampa turns to see a spiderweb of broken ice and he goes to cast an ice prison in the direction where the invisible Cole has fallen, but his leg that was cut goes suddenly numb and he loses his balance. He stumbles, his concentration lost much like Roderick’s. Numbness begins spreading down half of his face. His mouth droops and one eye closes. Losing control of his powers entirely, the ice melts before he can trap the invisible man and he hears Cole laughing as his vision begins to grow hazy.

Matt nods at Pete and then the ground under their opponents begins to churn. Roots reach up and tangle the legs of both of them and begin to pull them down into the soil. Similar serpentine, twisting roots make the earth boil and the radius expands out farther and farther, encompassing the maximum distance that the teleportation magic of the belts allows their holders. Fish uses the power and when he reappears, he is grabbed by roots again and his ankles are yanked completely underground. He tries to teleport once more, but he reappears exactly where he had been standing, the power spent for the time being. He panics and slashes at the roots, but they keep coming.

Matt observes, “It looks like Fish blew his whole magical load too early.”

Dijakovic jumps high into the air to clear the burning ground around him. He comes back down with a crash in front of Grimes that knocks the man to his ass. He brings his swords down into either of Grimes’ shoulders, slicing toward his neck. He rips the swords out, slinging a spray of blood behind him and Grimes remains where he sat. He’s still alive but in shock, mouth agape, eyes wide. Dominik pulls one of his swords back and prepares to stab him in the chest, finishing the job, but Priest comes tearing up behind him, running carelessly across the flames, and stabs Dominik in the back of his knee. The attack skewers his leg.

As this happens, Keith goes for his own killing blow against the downed Strong. His swing misses as Roderick shrinks to half his normal size then scurries away as fast as he can, dragging his ruined leg behind him.

With a running start, Matt dashes into the aggressive field of roots. At the edge, he jumps like a shirtless, barefoot gazelle. As he comes down a stone rises up to meet his foot. He crosses the roots and beneath each of his footfalls, a stone rises, protecting him. He leaps from rock to rock, making his way toward Fish. Roots reach up and tangle around Fish’s sword, pulling it from his hands and into the dirt. Matt lets out a wild yell and lunges for him. His feet crash into the man’s chest and Fish falls back with Matt’s momentum. His head hits the ground with a moist cracking noise under Matt’s force. The roots grab at his whole body, wrapping around his face and into his mouth, pulling it wide open and reaching down his throat. Matt uses his chest as a springboard and jumps to a stone where he perches and watches the roots as they pull his opponent under. Fish’s hands paw weakly and grasp at the air as he sinks and Matt stands on solid ground, observing as he vanishes and the ground turns to normal where he had lain.

An arrow comes flying from somewhere toward Johnny. It hits his protective aura and falls to the ground, but the aura shimmers and then fades, allowing an opening for Austin. He swings wildly against Johnny’s round shield, forcing him down to one knee and giving him no chance to retaliate. He keeps hammering away at him, yelling with each strike, and then finally cutting into the shield itself. His sword gets stuck in the wood and he uses it to his advantage, raising it up quickly so the shield strikes Johnny in the chin. Johnny’s mouth fills with blood and Theory yanks his sword out of the shield and then hits him in the side of the head with the haft. He falls at last and Austin moves for Ciampa.

Keith again ignites the ground under Roderick with holy fire. Strong makes himself larger again. He stands and falls mostly out of the attack then goes to make a desperate swipe at Keith with a giant hand. Keith doesn’t budge and instead holds his sword at the ready and stabs it through his palm. He cries out, startled. He jerks his hand away, Keith’s sword stuck through it but leaving Keith standing there disarmed. Keith keeps standing his ground. He lifts one hand and begins making motions like an orchestra conductor, closing his eyes as he does so.

“Oh, bask in his glory!” The Universe begins to sing and Roderick trembles as Keith approaches him, leading this chorus.

Priest tears through Dominik’s leg with his sword, destroying his knee, blood soaking his sword and pouring down the other man’s shin and calf. Dijakovic is screaming, but he manages to turn. He clutches his swords, but when he tries to take a step toward Priest, his leg gives way underneath him. Priest goes for his knee again, chopping into it from the side this time. Dominik screams again in agony as he falls completely.

Matt runs across the roots again, springing athletically from the stones that keep emerging to make his path toward O’Reilly. Pete watches the horrified expression on O’Reilly’s face as he tries to teleport and gets grabbed again, his sword taken. Matt keeps coming, grinning like a madman. He jumps for him and comes at him with an elbow. O’Reilly turns his head, but it does not to save him. Matt’s elbow comes crashing into his cheek and the rest of Matt plows into his chest. He goes falling into the deadly roots that begin pulling him under as Matt somersaults onto safe ground.

“Poison,” Ciampa manages to utter, the numbness slowly taking over his whole body from the two small cuts he was inflicted. His vision is nearly gone, and he sees in front of him the grass compressing in two vaguely foot-shaped places. Cole is standing there, admiring his work.

The sky above Keith opens up and a beam of blinding light blasts down onto Roderick. He screams in pain as it sears his skin. He throws his head back and light shoots from his mouth and his eyes as his face melts away exposing his skull.

Theory charges toward Ciampa with his sword poised to stab into his back while he’s down on his knees. Ciampa can’t see him, but he hears him. He grips his staff with all of the strength he has left as he falls over onto his side. Theory is wrapped in magic, his arms bound to his sides. He is suspended in the air for a few seconds before being sent spiraling into the flaming shack. Cole stomps down on the fingers of Ciampa’s hand that has ahold of his staff, and he releases his grip that was not extraordinarily strong to begin with. The staff rolls away and Cole reappears, looking down at him, unaware that the other three members of Undisputed Era are dead. He is completely focused on Ciampa, on his accomplishment, on taking down this so-called great wizard that didn’t seem so great at all.

“Paralysis poison,” he tells him, watching the numbness spread completely through the other man’s body. “It can take down the strongest men. It’s a shame you won’t feel it when I kill you, but you’ll still be able to hear all of the screams of your friends.”

Cole stands over Ciampa with one of his daggers raised and poised to stab him in the chest. Just as he goes to plunge it through the ribs of the downed man, a raven drops from the sky, diving straight for his face. The bird digs its claws into Cole’s left eye, the dagger falling from his hands and he screams as his eyelid is torn to shreds and his eye sliced to pieces like a juicy grape. He manages to grab onto one of the raven’s wings while it tears his skin to tethers and begins snapping its beak at his ear.

Ciampa watches through barely open eyes and extremely cloudy vision as the mighty Adam Cole fights with a bird. He wants to smile but can’t move his lips while he watches the scene unfold from the ground and upside down. Blood is gushing, dripping, and being flung by feathers, hands and claws. Then the raven latches onto his left ear and tears it in half. Cole screams and finally manages to rip the big bird from his face, pulling out a chunk of his eye that dangles from the optic nerve and slaps his cheek, swinging like a pendulum. The rest of his eye is skewered and in pieces on the talons of the bird. He screams and attempts to throw the beast to the ground, but it flaps its wings and caws angrily, righting itself before impact, then sliding and glaring at him the entire time.

As the raven comes to a stop it grows larger, feathers vanish, and to Adam’s horror, Charlotte Flair is crouched on the ground, scowling at him with her jaw clenched. She is covered in blood and it takes him a moment to realize that it’s his blood. He grasps at his disfigured face and bends down, fumbling around on the ground for the dagger, but afraid to take his one eye off of her.

She rises to her feet and rolls her shoulder – the wing he grabbed to fight her off – and the Universe lets out a triumphant cheer then chants of “Welcome home” begin at a thunderous volume.

Cole gets his hand on the hilt of the dagger, but it keeps slipping away because it's so slick with blood from his face that is still pouring from his mangled eye socket. Ciampa’s slack face tightens and one side of his lips curl into a half-smile. He makes a fist and then somehow reaches above his head for the knife. Adam stumbles back and looks around frantically for the rest of Undisputed Era. The sun is setting and he sees only smoke, flames, and Charlotte Flair coming toward him. He wants to scream for help but instead, he just screams.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

The bell rings ending the match for the tag belts. All that’s left of Fish and O’Reilly is one of O’Reilly’s hands that is sticking out of the ground like a macabre sapling.

Ciampa rolls over and Cole’s horror is magnified because Ciampa is somehow recovering from his poison that is supposed to render an ox useless for hours, so it certainly should have kept the wiry man down. Ciampa shakes his head, clearing his vision and gets a proper grip on the knife. Cole screams again because the man has his blade and is dragging himself toward him and Charlotte is standing, silhouetted in flames from the burning cabin. She’s smiling and he watches in terror as she lifts her hand. He gives up trying to hold his face together and he scrambles instead for the Referee holding his belt. He trips and falls down while Ciampa continues his advance, gaining speed, getting up on his knees.

The Universe begins chants of “psychokiller” along with “holy shit” and “let’s go Charlotte.” It’s an absolute cacophony the likes of which none of them have ever heard. Matt and Pete with their new belts run back up toward the cabin to see what exactly is going on. They arrive just in time to see Adam covering his ears, smearing blood on more of his face and in his hair. He pleads, “Shut up, you idiots!”

“You little bitch,” Ciampa gets up to one knee and then stands shakily but stands. He is hunched forward.

Cole shrieks and reaches for his belt. The Referee hands it to him and as soon as his fingers grasp it, he sees Charlotte make the slightest motion with her hand. The belt is yanked from his grasp and slung toward Ciampa. He crawls toward it, back toward Ciampa, on his hands and knees. Out of the corner of his eye, Charlotte makes the same slight motion and the belt slides away from him and closer still to Ciampa.

“That’s not yours,” she says.

“You shouldn’t play with people, Charlotte. You should’ve moved it farther. You should’ve just given it to Ciampa instead of putting on this little show,” Johnny’s voice says from behind her, coldly.

She turns and her eyes narrow, focusing on Ciampa’s friend. On a man that is supposed to be on their side. She’s still smiling, but there’s some confusion in her voice when she says, “You fucking turncoat. You’ll never be forgiven.”

“And you’ll never win,” he responds to her.

The light that glowed from his eyes is no longer white light like that of Keith’s. It has turned dark. He throws his shield aside and comes at her with his sword intending to run her through with it. Before he reaches her, she turns again into a raven and he misses her completely as she flies above him.

“Kill the God damn bird! Someone kill that fucking bird!” Adam is screaming at the top of his lungs, not wanting Charlotte to escape after she wrecked his face.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

And the bell rings for the North American Belt of Power as Roderick’s charred corpse falls over and partially turns to ash when it hits the ground. Priest, hearing this bell and seeing that everyone has fallen except Adam, disappears into the forest. He leaves Dijak where he went down, passed out from pain and blood loss, not sticking around to finish him and also be part of the losing team.

An arrow goes whisking by the raven, matching the one that put an end to Johnny’s aura of protection a short time before. This makes no sense and only makes her angrier. Someone did hear Cole and that someone listened. Charlotte dives to dodge another arrow and then another. She circles the battlefield in a wide arc, searching for whoever is wielding the bow. Matt and Pete both tear off into the trees, trying to find whoever it is attempting to take down Charlotte as well, believing that they’re seeing Johnny coming to Ciampa’s aid.

Charlotte lets out a sharp caw, as Johnny picks up the NXT Belt of Power. He approaches Ciampa who is focused on Cole and standing up straight now.

“Let him live,” Johnny says to him and extends the belt out, getting between the two as he had gotten between Theory and Ciampa earlier - but that was clearly just a ruse. Here he had just told Charlotte she shouldn’t put on a show and he had put on a very grand one.

Ciampa pauses and looks at Johnny. He reaches for the belt and Charlotte can’t get to him in time because of whoever is seeing fit to shoot arrows at her. She watches as Johnny snatches the belt away instead of handing it over and then slams it into the side of Ciampa’s head with all of his might. The Universe going silent for a second and then erupting into a thunderous sound of rage. Ciampa goes tumbling backward, dropping the dagger, bleeding from his temple, and knocked completely unconscious.

Keith watches this happen, but he can’t get to him either, and yells out a loud, “Oh, God, Johnny! No!”

Johnny looks over what he’s done without the slightest remorse and Adam smiles in spite of his injuries. Johnny hands the belt back to him and helps him to his feet. A portal opens and he then helps Cole through it to make his retreat, looking back over his shoulder at the heap of man that is Ciampa and also glancing up at the sky toward Charlotte.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

The final Referee fades away. Keith looks in the direction Johnny had looked before the portal closed and sees the raven dodging an arrow before flying away into the darkness.


	10. Surprises For Everyone!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's catch up with some of the SmackDown heroes, visit Raw, and...oh, my God...what is Liv up to??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Podfic Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-10-Surprises-For-Everyone-ejks7h)

R-Truth somehow completely misses an encounter with Undisputed Era after leaving the company of Ciampa. He runs all the way back to Charlotte with Ciampa’s one-word answer and his scroll. Charlotte, who is waiting for him outside of town, takes the answer and the scroll and says nothing to him. She reads the scroll expressionlessly.

“These people aren’t very nice. You better watch out, Miss Charlotte,” he advises.

She laughs for a moment before sighing, “I’ll be fine. You better get going though. There’s about to be a fight.”

“Tom Champion-” He starts to say.

“Tommaso Ciampa,” she corrects.

“Tomato Corndog,” he says, and she gives up quickly. “He has more allies than you thought.”

“Oh?” She responds curiously, this fact piquing her interest.

“There were two extra-”

She interrupts with a groan, “What keeps happening to change things?”

He shrugs, not recognizing her question as rhetorical. He suggests, “Maybe you’re angering the Titan of Pinfall.”

Charlotte waves her hand dismissively and says to herself still, “What if it hasn’t changed and two people aren’t his allies? I don’t know which two. Shit.” She looks at Truth and says, “Get out of NXT.”

“Gladly,” he says enthusiastically. “Can I go find Mella now?”

“Yes. That’s fine,” she answers him, clearly thinking about the situation with Ciampa.

“Do I get to carry another message to anyone? That’s my favorite part. Being Messenger of the Queen is almost as cool as being the 24/7, 7-Eleven Champion.”

She shakes her head, “No. Just find your friend Carmella and take her to The New Day or something.”

“You sure?”

Eyeing him she says, “I’m sure.”

“Are you positive though? I’m afraid you might be forgetting something. You’re real busy. You got an awful lot going on. I think you need an assistant. A side-kick, maybe. Someone like-”

“What am I forgetting, Truth?” She asks him, slightly annoyed, interrupting his soliloquy.

“I don’t know. How am I supposed to know? I can’t read your mind. Damn. Why are you always on my case?” She shoots him a glare and he cowers immediately saying apologetically, “Alright. Alright. I’ll just go find Mella.” He starts to dart off back toward Ciampa’s shack – the wrong direction – but Charlotte grabs the back of his cloak and points him south toward SmackDown. When she lets him go, he vanishes in a blur.

Truth thinks he has a pretty good handle on the recent events taking place in Pinfall. He’s only a little confused and only about half the time. If he keeps his belt, he gets to meet John Cena. John Cena is his favorite hero, the greatest Champion Pinfall has ever seen and the best character in all of the Wrestlemania stories - in R-Truth’s humble opinion. Sometimes people argue with him and he doesn’t know why. John Cena returns whenever there’s a Wrestlemania, descending from the heavens, from the home of the gods, to smite the Forces of Evil alongside the new Champions. At least that’s how it always happens in the stories and the Queen, Charlotte Flair, told Truth all of the stories were true. She also told him he couldn’t lose his belt, no matter what, to run everywhere, avoid towns unless she told him to. He did all that anyway.

He doesn’t like to think much about magic, sorcery, and that sort of stuff. It freaks him out. People keep saying his belt is magical, but he doesn’t think it is. He runs fast because he needs to run fast to protect the 24/7, I-95, 3.14, 365 Belt of Power from the Forces of Evil. He wants to run fast, believes he can run fast, and then he runs fast. Simple. No magic there. Nothing magical about it. Nope.

The border of SmackDown and NXT is a river, The Survivor Series River. What a weird-ass name for a river, Truth thinks. Lots of places have weird names in Pinfall. There’s a couple of bridges over the river and into SmackDown, but he doesn’t like to take bridges. Other people are always crossing the bridges. People like Mojo Rawley, Riddick Moss, Tamina sometimes. He has to avoid them because they want his belt, and he has to keep his belt because Charlotte said so because he wants to meet John Cena. At the mouth of Survivor Series is a Locker Room – a meeting place – in the city of Backlash. Obviously, he needs to avoid all that. Survivor Series forks to the west and situated at the fork is another city, Performance Center. He needs to avoid that too.

R-Truth sometimes runs so fast he ends up in places he didn’t mean to be, so he slows down, looks around, checking his location. He avoids major roads and he knows the safe places where his friends are in SmackDown and Raw, but he doesn’t have friends in NXT. Nothing seems safe here. It’s all gritty and dark. He’s not sure how he feels about the NXT heroes, even. He doesn’t see anyone. He’s in the wilderness. Something is weird about it though. He can’t put his finger on it. He stops completely to ponder it.

“Don’t stop for anything until you get where you’re going, Truth,” Charlotte’s voice chides him in his mind. She’s like his mom, but meaner.

The trees around him are sparkling and glowing. Everything is sort of glittery as opposed to gritty, sparkling in pink and white, and shrouded in purple instead of dark. There is a purple mist. It isn’t scary. Nothing is menacing here. It’s pretty nice and calming. Mesmerizing. It’s so different from the other parts of NXT that he isn’t sure he’s in NXT anymore. R-Truth walks slowly, looking at his surroundings. This place seems to stretch on forever. He doesn’t know what this place is. He’s never heard of anything like it.

“And who might you be?” A sultry voice says from behind him.

Truth whirls around and makes sure his belt is hidden under his cloak by grabbing at the edge through the fabric such that it is apparent that it’s under there. He sees a man hovering behind him. A sprite, rather, like Alexa. He has glimmering purple dragonfly wings and is wearing sunglasses with three lenses like he has a third eye in the middle of his forehead. He has his arms crossed.

“I’m R-Truth,” R-Truth answers.

“What are you doing here, R-Truth?” Asks the mysterious, sparkling forest-dweller.

Truth thinks this might be one of the times that the truth is not what he should say. He clutches his belt and tells him quickly, “I’ve got a friend who is a sprite. Her name is Alexa Bliss. Do you know her? She’s small, blonde and pink hair, hangs out with the barbarian, Nikki Cross.” He pauses and then adds, completely changing the subject, “You got any snacks?”

The sprite doesn’t move aside from his fluttering wings, “Just because I’m a sprite doesn’t mean I know all of the other sprites and I don’t have snacks. Do I look like I have snacks?”

“Are you a friend?” R-Truth decides to ask him point-blank.

“I don’t know, are you?” He asks.

“I don’t know, are you?” Truth asks right back. He asked first, after all.

The sprite moves a little closer and asks again, “Are you?”

“I don’t know, are you?” Truth asks, his voice getting a little shrill.

The sprite sighs and then comes down to the ground to stand in front of him. He looks him over and then questions, “Are you lost, R-Truth?”

“Nah,” he says. “I know where I’m going, so I’m not lost. I just don’t know where I am exactly at this moment. That’s all. My sense of direction is uncanny. I have the homing instincts of a swan wearing a compass as a necklace.”

The stranger is taken aback by this bizarre statement, confused and unable to tell if the man is joking or not. He asks him, “So where are you going?”

“SmackDown. I have to find my friend Carmella. I think she’s somewhere in SmackDown.”

“That’s quite noble,” he uncrosses his arms and touches R-Truth’s shoulder with his fingertips as he folds his wings and they vanish. “A Wrestlemania is upon us. Do you believe the legends?”

“I believe in John Cena,” Truth nods, excitedly. “The greatest hero, the greatest Champion-”

“Ah, yes. Well, I’m the Velveteen Dream,” the sprite finally introduces himself. “You can call me the Dream.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Dream,” R-Truth extends his hand for a shake.

Velveteen Dream just looks at it and then says, “No, the Dream.”

“Huh?”

“Nevermind,” he then shakes Truth's hand and he doesn’t let it go. He holds it and grips it tighter the more Truth attempts to pull away.

Truth starts to panic a little. The man has very soft hands, but he does not want to continue holding his hand. He just wanted to shake his hand. Maybe sprites don’t do handshakes. Maybe there’s a language barrier of some sort. He tells him, “Hey, uh, Mr. Dream. You oughta let go.”

Dream does so and then points, “SmackDown is that way. You best be moving along now to find your friend, Mr. R-Truth, but I suspect I’ll see you again on the Road to Wrestlemania. I hope you are on the correct side.”

He nods in agreement, very put-off by the too-long handshake that turned into hand-holding. He starts to back away from him. Dream’s glasses completely hide his eyes and Truth can’t tell if he’s looking at him or not. Dream makes a shooing motion with his fingers. R-Truth runs.

He runs until he is out of the sparkling purple trees and back in normal trees then he keeps running. He runs until he reaches the river. He walks down the bank until he finds a place suitable to cross and then he finds himself back in the more familiar Realm of SmackDown. Now, to find Carmella. He has no idea where to even start looking.

Before he can figure out where to begin, he hears familiar voices. He doesn’t slow right away and instead begins circling them, the circles getting smaller and smaller as he makes sure the people are who he thinks they are. It’s Heavy Machinery and Sonya. Tucker shushes the other two and draws his sword. They stop and all poise themselves for an attack.

Truth gets nervous and also looks around as he’s running. He darts into their midst and then stops. He asks, “Is someone following you? Is someone following me? Hide me quick.”

“Truth, what are you doing?” Tucker says to him with a sigh and re-sheaths his sword.

Sonya follows suit, sighs and puts her daggers away. Otis drops his big balled fists to his sides.

“I could ask y’all the same thing,” Truth comments. “Is someone following me?” He peaks over Otis’ shoulder and looks back in the direction he came from. “Is it the man that held my hand in the woods?”

“Uh,” Sonya starts to reply to him but stops and only shakes her head.

“We’re going to the Ring,” Tucker tells him, pleasantly enough. “We’re going to get Roman, the belts, and Mandy.”

R-Truth asks immediately, “Have any of you seen Mella?”

“She might be at the Ring or someone there might know where she is,” Sonya suggests. “Come with us, I guess. The more the merrier.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. There’s an awful lot of people at the Ring and I have to protect my treasure,” he winks at her very conspicuously.

“We’ll keep you safe, buddy,” Tucker tells him. “And we’ll help you look for Carmella. Isn’t that right, Otis?”

Otis has been quiet the whole time, sullen and thoughtful. He lets out a dispassionate, “Oh, yeah. Uh huh, Tucky.”

“Did you even hear what I said?” Tucker asks him with concern.

“Just thinking about my peach,” says Otis.

“Focus, my man,” Tucker grabs his shoulders. “Do you need potassium?” Otis shakes his head and Tucker gazes into his eyes. “Your peach probably doesn’t even need to be rescued.”

“Carmella needs to be rescued?!” Truth exclaims. “Who has Mella?!”

Sonya squints in his direction and says, “Huh?”

“Mella. We were talking about Carmella,” Truth says to her, seeming annoyed this time.

“No, we were talking about Mandy Rose,” Tucker tells him pleasantly and Otis clenches a fist with determination then looks toward the south.

They all look at one another for a few seconds before Sonya grabs R-Truth by the elbow and says, “Come on. Let’s keep moving. We need to cover as much ground as we can today.”

~~~~~

In the middle of the Realm of Raw, somewhere outside of Claymore Country, Seth Rollins is giving a sermon to a small group of commoners. Standing to his right is Murphy, his hands clutched politely in front of his crotch and his face expressionless. They are wearing matching long white robes, which are open, exposing their muscular chests and the two of them are wearing the Raw Men’s Tag Team Belts of Power. Behind them are Rezar and Akam, arms crossed, glowering at the people of the village.

“Raw needs a savior,” Seth says to them passionately. “Raw needs to be united and led down the path that is right and that is good. We need to make Raw great again and I can help. I am the only one that can help.”

There are some half-assed cheers, but mostly just confused grunts.

Seth goes on, not seeming to notice the apathy of his small audience, “Raw can’t be led by so-called heroes like Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton. Not even by the likes of the supposed Queen, Charlotte Flair ranting about Wrestlemanias.” He pauses and assesses his audience. He isn’t impressed and neither are they, but he continues, louder this time, “There are all these rumors of a Wrestlemania, but they are just that – rumors. They’re meant to stop Raw from becoming united. This Wrestlemania nonsense is intended to divide us. Divide and conquer the greatest of the four realms of the Kingdom of Pinfall.”

“Why, Messiah?” A peasant questions him meekly. The peasant is wearing a hooded cloak and is hunched forward awkwardly, his back twisted.

“Why? Why? Whyyyyy?” Seth’s voice becomes more and more shrill with each repetition of the word. “Why do they not want Raw to be united? Because they want Raw for themselves! They want to cause an upheaval! A civil war! But I-” He raises his hands to the heavens. “I want peace for Raw! I want Raw to be the magical and beautiful land that it once was!”

“And you can do that, Messiah?” The cloaked peasant asks.

“Of course I can do that. I am the Messiah! I’m here to give you the Gospel!” He looks down at the people and most seem more engaged now, but it might be because he’s yelling and this other man has gotten involved in the dialogue.

“Does Randy Orton know you use him in your speeches?” The peasant asks, suddenly standing up straight. His back is not crooked at all, but he does have a huge gut. That or he’s hiding something under his cloak.

Seth’s eyes narrow. He stares at the man, trying to see beneath the shadow of his hood. He has a beard. That’s all he can make out and it doesn’t narrow down his identity very much. The man begins approaching and the Messiah lowers his arms. The other people start to wander away, thinking his sermon is over. Seth watches, unmoving. The AOP shuffle their feet behind him and Murphy remains steadfast. Soon, only they remain along with the cloaked stranger.

“I’ve been following you, Rollins,” the man says, still obscuring his face. He’s also altering his voice. His voice is clearly not as deep as he’s making it. “I’ve been following you from town to town, listening to you attack all of the champions of Raw.”

What is this game he’s playing? Seth wonders. Could this man be on to him? Could he possibly know his secret? There is no way. Akam and Rezar move in closer and flank him as the stranger gets closer. His hood falls and he looks at Seth.

“Oh. Kevin,” Seth says, somewhat relieved. Kevin Owens is mostly innocuous. He isn’t sure how his tiny ankles support his huge belly. “I’m glad you’re here, Kev.” He signals to the AOP to back up and he takes a step toward him, not threatened.

“What are you doing, Seth?” Kevin asks him, talking normally now.

“What am I doing?” He asks back, sharply. “I’m doing what I said. I’m uniting Raw so it can return to its former glory. Are you here to help or are you another idiot that’s afraid of the truth?”

“While I do want Raw to return to its former glory…” He looks Seth up and down, pausing for a moment before going on. “I don’t think that’s what you’re really doing.”

Kevin is not here to join him at all. This is disappointing. Seth frowns. “What do you think I’m doing, Kev? Do you believe a Wrestlemania is nigh? Are you one of those particularly special idiots?”

“I don’t care about any Wrestlemania. I just want to stop you,” Kevin answers.

“Stop me?” Seth asks him, his voice becoming very high in his surprise. He points to himself and says, “I’m the good guy here, Kev. I want everyone to stop fighting over these stupid belts. I just want everyone to get along and stop believing in stupid myths.” He pats the belt.

“I don’t believe that,” Kevin takes a step closer to him.

They stare into one another’s eyes for several seconds before Kevin lunges toward Seth’s face with his arms to hit him with a stunner. Seth smiles as Kevin impacts nothing. Finding only air and then he and Muphy vanish entirely. Kevin stumbles forward, startled and confused. Akam and Rezar are on him immediately. An elbow to his back from Rezar knocks him onto this face.

Murphy and Seth are standing on the opposite side of the village square. Murphy smirks and Seth laughs. He pats the belt again as they observe the AOP stomping and kicking Kevin where their illusions had stood.

~~~~~

Many miles away, several days travel, at the southernmost part of the Kingdom of Pinfall, in the castle of the King of the Ring, Mandy shrieks confusedly at Dolph, “What are you talking about this was part of the plan?! What plan?!”

“Your plan!” He yells back with fairly equal confusion and ducks a fireball from her wand.

“My plan?! I don’t have a plan! If I did have a plan then you kidnapping me and taking me through a portal would not have been it!”

“I’m really confused,” he states plainly and rubs his head. “Is that why you keep trying to escape?”

The two of them are standing in an elaborate guest room in one of the castle’s towers. There is a large canopied bed, shelves of books, a desk, and wardrobe – all of the fixings of a very nice castle guestroom, although it is now in disarray. Mandy has been trying to escape since her arrival which has caused Dolph significant dismay. She blinks and looks at him, finally deciding to talk to him about what in the world is going on. She expected to be thrown in the dungeon or taken to King Corbin or something other than being led to a well-furnished guestroom.

“Ok,” Mandy lowers her voice and looks at Ziggler blocking the doorway. She also lowers her wand that she has been using to blast Dolph with fire and has scorched all of the curtains as well as a tapestry in the hall. “If you weren’t kidnapping me, why in the world did you put a knife to my throat?”

“It was part of the plan,” he answers, frustrated and putting a great deal of emphasis on the word ‘plan.’ “It had to look like a kidnapping.”

“Because it was the plan?” She asks and he nods. She goes on, “So whose plan was this?”

“I thought it was your plan so you can see how I’m really confused about why you have been trying to kill me and escape all night and most of today.”

“Oh…” She pauses and looks around at the mess she made in the room. There is a shattered bottle of wine, food slung all over the walls, books are strewn about, and of course the charred curtains. “So who…how…” She’s so puzzled she can’t figure out how to ask what exactly she means.

“We were in Suplex City and we were told to intercept you all the next day on your way into Raw. I needed to “fake” kidnap you and get the belts, come back here using a portal and wait.” Dolph crosses his arms, still visibly confused and a little nervous that she’s going to try to burn him alive again.

Mandy is also still very confused, “Wait for what, and who told you this? Who did these instructions come from? Charlotte or-”

“Charlotte? No,” the blonde man is appalled. “Why would Charlotte have anything to do with this? What are you talking about? It was Sonya. She’s supposed to be coming back to fake “rescue” you and lure the SmackDown heroes into our trap.”

Mandy is so stunned that her wand falls from her hand and she just stares at Ziggler, mouth agape.

~~~~~

The NXT heroes attempt to regroup as best they can following the attack and Johnny’s betrayal. Ciampa comes to and insists they leave for the Wargames Citadel immediately, sticking to their original plan. Keith does his best to mend the mess that is Dijak’s leg, but the injury is beyond even Keith’s holy healing abilities.

Dijakovic limps and groans as they move from the scene of destruction. Keith is helping him walk and he says, “Just leave me. I’m slowing you all down.”

“I won’t leave you,” Keith grumbles, not able to believe he even made the suggestion.

“If we could figure out how to use this belt magic, Keith could make himself bigger and carry us all, bro,” Matt says, dragging his belt behind him.

“She knows how to use the belts,” Ciampa tells them. He is using his staff to steady himself. He’s very shaky as he moves and is not much faster than Dominik, but he moves with endless determination. “Charlotte Flair,” he clarifies. “She is who we’re meeting at the Citadel.”

Pete and Matt couldn’t find the mysterious archer that had been shooting at her at the request of Adam Cole. Whoever it was is still out there somewhere in the trees. Pete keeps his guard up, his eyes constantly darting around looking for movement. He carries his belt in his teeth, gnawing at it, not listening to the banter around him, concerned only for the archer.

“You’ve got to leave me,” Dijak insists again to Keith after a few moments.

“I’m not leaving you with Damien Priest out there somewhere and whoever Cole’s archer is,” Keith argues.

The tall man ignores this and says, “We should be coming up on a road. Leave me there and I’ll catch a ride with someone going into town. I’ll catch up with you after I find a healer.”

Looking at him, concerned, Keith speaks solemnly, “If you’re sure and you promise to catch back up as soon as you can.”

Dijakovic nods, “Yes. I promise.”

They do come across a road a while later. Keith helps Dijakovic prop himself up against a rock and extend his wounded leg with a wince. He reassures Keith, “I’m sure someone will come by soon. Leave me a wineskin so I can pass the time.”

Everyone bids farewell to him and Keith lingers for a little while, feeling very ambivalent about this whole decision. No one else argued with Dominik. Ciampa seemed very anxious to keep moving and agreed with the abandonment of Dijakovic but didn’t speak it aloud. He thought only of Johnny and Adam. He wasn’t sure which one he wanted to kill more. Keith looks back over his shoulder at Dominik several times until he is completely out of view.

Back at what was once Ciampa’s cabin, a small figure kicks at the smoldering rubble of his shack. Liv finds the body of Austin Theory and begins humming a whimsical tune as she looks it over. As she looks down at him, his eyes open. He begins pulling himself from the debris as she moves along to the body of Cameron Grimes.

She giggles as Cameron also rises from where he had fallen. He fixes his hat and looks to her with cloudy white eyes, awaiting instructions. She looks at Roderick for a little longer than she looked at the other two. She puts her hands on her hips, unsure what exactly to do with him because he was so damaged by Keith Lee’s heavenly strike.

“Eh,” she shrugs and he also opens his eyes. A few moments later, she is trailed by these three men – the severely bloodied Cameron with his barely attached arms, and the two burnt forms of Austin and Roderick. She watches amusedly as Fish and O’Reilly struggle from the earth, covered in dirt and with empty, cloudy, dead eyes like the other three and also like the IIconics. Once everyone is standing, she says to them, “Alright, boys. Let’s go to the Citadel.”

Liv and her shambling collection of dead men begin moving in the same direction Ciampa and his party had gone. She follows their trail almost exactly such that she comes upon Dominik propped on the rock by the road, sipping from the wineskin a while later.

Dijak looks up at her and asks, “Who are you supposed to be?”

“Sister Abigail,” she answers and stares at his leg. He doesn’t see the men she has with her. His back is to them and he’s not interested in turning around. He remains facing the road and glumly drinking. “What happened to your leg?”

“Damien Priest,” he tells her.

“Who fixed you up?” She asks.

He eyes her with some suspicion, “You’re asking an awful lot of questions.” He doesn’t answer her and instead asks, “Are you going to town?”

“No,” she tells him. “I can finish fixing your leg up though. I’m a healer.” She indicates that she is wearing a tattered habit. “Don’t I look like a healer?”

Dominik looks at her and says, “Sort of. Yeah.”

She pulls a knife from some hidden internal pocket of her habit and he shifts around nervously, moving a bit farther away from her. She cocks her head to the side and cuts the palm of her left hand while looking at him. “Did you think I was going to stab you or something, Dijakovic?”

“Blood magic,” he gasps and drops the wineskin, which begins to leak out onto the soil and soak the side of his leg. He looks afraid and asks, “How did you know my name?”

“Hush,” she says, putting a blood-covered finger to her lips and smearing her own blood on her chin. As Dominik’s destroyed knee begins to glow and knit itself back together, he calms down. The process takes just a few seconds and he removes the dirty bandages to reveal a fixed knee with a fair bit of scarring, but he can bend it normally and it doesn’t hurt at all anymore.

“I thought blood magic was-”

She shushes him again and she says, “Go catch up with your friends.”

Dominik starts to get up. He is appreciative but remains suspicious. She has healed his leg, but she knows too much. She knows things she shouldn’t know. Like most everyone in Pinfall he also has a healthy fear of blood magic – a long-forbidden sorcery. He starts to thank her, and when he opens his mouth, she plunges her cut, bloody hand into it and grabs tightly onto his jaw.

He drops to his knees and grabs her small wrist with his hands, but she is so incredibly strong he cannot break her grip on his face. He shakes his head and feels her hot blood in his mouth and on his lips. Her nails are digging under his tongue and he wants to bite her but can’t. He’s frozen in fear as she looks down at him. He’s entranced, confused, and in pain being held by this much smaller woman that is somehow ten times stronger than he is.

Her own lips, smeared with blood making her look more clownish, twist into a sinister smile. She leans down and whispers in his ear as he trembles before her. “Everything has a cost, Dominik Dijakovic. You are in my debt and you will not be able to resist when I come to collect what I am owed.” She pauses and laughs, “The North American Belt of Power should have been yours not Keith Lee’s, by the way.”

Liv – Sister Abigail – releases him and he falls down into the puddle of wine. He backs up away from her, and fumbles for his satchel and his swords. She watches him as he gets to his feet, falling down twice more in his panic, eyes wide and her blood on his face. He runs across the road and to the north, not looking back. She looks at her resurrected allies and says to them, “Change of plans. Let’s go find this Damien Priest character. I like a man that will try to sever a man’s leg at the knee. He’s got potential.”


	11. The Great Un-Liberation of Sami Zayn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All aboard the Strowman Express!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Podfic link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-11-The-Great-Un-Liberation-Of-Sami-Zayn-ejtp8h)

The New Day exchange baffled glances and then they all look toward Braun. Elias is chuckling and playing guitar as Sami and company scramble out of the crumbling tower of Starrcade. The Referee stops his count.

“Does Braun really need our help?” Xavier asks the other two men. “I mean, look at him. Look at them,” he points and states the obvious. “He’s a lot bigger and has lightning powers.”

Sami ducks behind some rubble on the ground and peeks up over the top as Shinsuke and the cyborg Cesaro stand tall, but not literally as tall as Braun – the storm-giant. Shinsuke begins doing some interpretive dance to Elias’ guitar music. Sami tells him to stop and he looks downtrodden and stands still.

“Do you suppose Shinsuke knows how to use the belt magic?” Big E wonders and looks closely at the man who is wearing a strange suit with a very low V-neck down to his waist. Some stripes draw his eyes to the man’s crotch and from behind he can’t help but look at his butt. This is very distracting. He’s glad he doesn’t have to fight him.

Kofi says, “He would know what Braun was going to do before he did it, I guess. Is that how telepathy works?”

There’s a murmur of unsure agreement and some shrugging then they look on.

Cesaro charges toward Braun. He goes from stationary to full-speed instantly. As he runs, his metal legs make some hydraulic noises and he stomps across the sandy ground with a steady series of thumps. The gap between him and Braun is closed quickly, and Braun swings his electrified ax toward the robot when he is in range. Cesaro ducks and his momentum carries him forward on his knees. After sliding for a few feet, he springs up again and extends his arms, flying into one of Braun’s knees like a human-shaped torpedo. He impacts and Braun grunts.

Strowman leans to the side, staggered but not knocked completely off balance by any means. He focuses on Cesaro who is running around his ankles occasionally punching at his legs with his little metal fists. This doesn’t seem to really hurt the giant but does seem to be annoying him significantly. Definitely distracting him while Shinsuke studies him, looking for a weakness. Braun swats at Cesaro with one hand, trying to catch him.

“Get him! Get him!” Sami points frantically toward Braun, yelling at Shinsuke.

Shinsuke continues studying the situation, slowly walking toward Braun and keeping his distance. He moves fluidly and gracefully. Every motion appears to be part of a plan of some sort.

“Should we do something?” Kofi then asks.

“I dunno,” Xavier answers him. “Let’s see what happens?”

Clouds fill the sky and Big E gazes toward the heavens as the wind begins to pick up. “Should we back up in case of lightning? Or maybe get out of this open space?”

“What do you suppose lightning will do to Cesaro?” Kofi then questions thoughtfully, his unicorn snorting and shifting uncomfortably in the quickly changing weather. “What if the electricity makes him stronger?”

“Or will it short him out?” Wonders Xavier.

“Will rain make him rust like the Tin Man?” Big E is fascinated.

They don’t know the answer to any of these questions and they decide to back up a bit farther from the storm-giant as the sun is completely blotted out by thickening cumulonimbus clouds. Sami stands up and grabs at his hat as he watches Shinsuke dodge the ax and Cesaro duck again out of the way of a big hand. Elias swings his guitar to his back and seeks shelter under part of the tower. It starts to rain lightly.

Braun lets out a loud, “Raaaaaaah!”

It is accompanied by lightning dashing between some of the clouds and a boom of thunder. All three of the unicorns rear up on their hind legs and try to turn away. It takes some effort for the New Day to keep them under control. They dismount and allow the animals to gallop off.

Shinsuke circles around behind Braun and then leaps through the air to kick him in the back of his knee. This staggers him again and Cesaro dives for the back of his other knee. He doesn’t fall still, but he leans forward, brought a bit lower. As soon as Shinsuke’s feet touch the ground again from his previous strike he jumps up once more, this time plunging his knees into Braun’s lower back.

“Ha ha ha,” Cesaro says robotically.

E is very curious about how the cyborg works. “Is he made of stainless steel?”

“I wonder if Sami has to oil his joints…or give him oil changes?” Xavier wonders as well.

“Is he battery-powered? Does he have to be re-charged?” Kofi joins in on the questions about the nature of Cesaro.

Sami yells toward them, “I don’t have to oil him! He doesn’t need oil changes and he doesn’t need to be re-charged! He is a cyborg! Cy-borg! This means he has both organic and mechanical components, you dipshits! He is cybernetic and you three are all uncultured swine!”

“Ooooh,” they respond in unison, all nodding and interested, enjoying the learning experience that this fight has become. The rain starts coming down harder and they cautiously make their way across to the tower to get out of the downpour.

Braun is emitting sizzling, crackling light as his temper rises and the two men continually strike at his legs, attempting to bring him down to their level. His jeans provide some protection from their pestering, but they appear to be too fast for him to go on the offensive.

Sami is pacing, staying out of the rain, looking like he is on the verge of a coronary. Elias leans his shoulder against a stone wall and begins to strum away at his guitar again. He sings:

_“Not sure about the rules of this match._

_Pinfall has gone insane._

_A storm-giant, a robot, and an artist_

_Are fighting in the rain.”_

“Cyborg. Cyborg,” Sami corrects him. “He is not actually a robot. Get it right if you’re going to write a stupid song about it.”

Elias clears his throat and picks up again:

_“A storm-giant, a cyborg, and an artist_

_Are fighting in the rain._

_The New Day are watching this unfold_

_And so is Sami Zayn._

_Will the Intercontinental Belt change hands_

_Or remain exactly the same?”_

“That song was fucking terrible. Terrible,” Sami says to him angrily. “You’re not an artist. You’re a talentless hack and you have crumbs in your beard.”

“I’ll admit, it was not my best,” Elias confesses and looks at his beard for the supposed crumbs. “I’m not very inspired by this fight.”

“What? What is that supposed to mean?” Sami takes offense to his comment. He points out at the scene, “Look at them. Look at Shinsuke and Cesaro. They are beautiful, beautiful men. Full of grace and poise and skill and they are oozing talent out of all of their orifices and you…” Sami takes a deep breath and then finishes, “You are stupid.”

“Raaaaaaaaah!” Braun yells again and this time he spins in a circle, trying to stomp on the smaller men. Without much warning, he brings his electrified ax down into the earth, splitting the ground, forming a substantial ditch, and forcing Shinsuke and Cesaro apart.

It has become even darker, the clouds more and more menacing, and the wind howling. A flash of lightning illuminates the madness and rage that has contorted Braun’s face. As thunder rolls, he rips his ax from the ground, spins it above his head and brings it down again. Shinsuke moves out of the way just in time. Another crevasse forms where the blade impacts and it snakes away from for at least forty feet. He rips his weapon free, slinging up wet dirt and grass. He brings it down a third time and Cesaro is forced to tuck and roll out of the way with some metallic clunking noises.

“Maybe…could we just get the Artist Collective to join us?” Kofi suggests to Woods and Big E. “As long as we have the Intercontinental Belt of Power, does it matter who has it? Ya know, like the tag belts.”

E answers unsurely, “I dunno, man.”

“Join you for what? What are you dumdums talking about?” Sami asks, not taking his eyes off of the fight.

“Wrestlemania,” says Xavier.

“Wrestlemania?!” Sami shrieks. “You all are seriously getting ready for a Wrestlemania?!”

“Uh, yeah,” E tells him.

“Looks like we’ve got a Wrestlemania non-believer among us,” Elias says in a sing-song voice and plays a few chords seeing if there’s anything he can work with for his great ballad. He frowns, displeased.

Sami protests, “I’m not a non-believer!”

Their voices are drowned out by the loudest roll of thunder yet and Braun extends his ax high above his head. A deafening, cracking explosion rings out as a bolt of lightning strikes and fills the giant with radiant white light. The onlookers shield their eyes and look away as Braun lets out an inhuman roar.

Xavier opens one of his eyes slowly and expects to see Shinsuke and Cesaro’s twitching bodies on the ground at Braun’s feet. They were close enough to him that they would have been indirectly struck, surely. He is completely wrong and hears Sami giggling from nearby. The giggles turn into full-fledged cackling and Sami raises his arms above his head in triumph with his two artists standing defiantly against the storm-giant.

“Their mouthguards,” laughs Sami. “I had them imbued with lightning-resistance by a mage when we were in Smackville! Braun is such a sucker!”

Braun is completely enraged. The New Day didn’t think he could get more enraged than he already was, but they were very wrong. Kofi looks at Xavier and E. He says only, “Uh oh.”

Braun’s eyes focus on Sami, bolts of electricity shooting from them. His temper has flared so high that he no longer cares about Shinsuke and Cesaro. He has forgotten about the whole point of this fight and just wants to kill Sami. He points toward the Great Liberator, whose laughter quickly fades when he realizes what is happening. The New Day rush quickly away from Sami and Elias does the same in the opposite direction. Braun begins to run straight for him, each footfall as loud as the thunder, and shaking the ground so much that everyone struggles to maintain their footing as they get out of the way.

Sami is frozen in fear as the giant beelines for him. He manages only to brace himself for the impact and let out a noise that sounds like, “Eeeeeee!”

Crashing into the ruins, Braun yells for Sami. Cracks wiggle up the stones and pieces crumble from the already damaged structure. The New Day grab onto each other, frantically guiding one another away from the hunk of parapet that falls a moment later. It shatters where they had been standing and they cry out, startled.

Braun drops his ax and pounds his fists into the tower as he angrily searches for Sami. More pieces of the old structure begin to crumble and fall. Braun wants to smash Sami. “Sami!” He roars, “You little shit! You need to get these hands!”

There’s no sign of Sami. Everyone is fairly sure he got squished by the remnants of Starrcade. Cesaro and Shinsuke take full advantage of the situation, unleashing a flurry of kicks into the back of Braun’s knees. He finally falls forward, into the battered wall. He catches himself and turns, being reminded of the two other men involved in the match.

Cesaro climbs up Braun’s body and punches him in his right eye with a very solid, metal fist.

“Raaah!” Braun cries out and covers his eye, shaking the cyborg off of him and coming crashing down into a pile of rubble.

“Crap…” Big E mumbles.

The Referee hovers between the New Day and Braun, watching them. They can’t interfere. Rules still exist, but they are fast and loose and are not in the favor of SmackDown’s heroes, it seems.

“Yeah, so…” Kofi says, putting his hands on his hips, “We maybe will need to just get the belt on our side and not necessarily on Braun Strowman.”

“Charlotte is going to snap her fingers and break our legs,” E comments, sounds afraid.

“That’s not a thing,” Xavier tries to remind him. “Pretty sure she’ll be mad though. She’ll yell at us.”

“She’s going to ground us and send us to our rooms,” mutters Kofi, extremely disappointed.

Shinsuke starts laughing and spreads open the already wide-open front of his strange one-piece outfit. He exposes his chest, puffs it out, and laughs wildly. He begins flailing his upper body back and forth, headbanging, and his laughter turns into a crazed yell. Braun is still pawing at his face after getting a robotic poke in the eye. Shinsuke jumps up and down a few times, gets a running start, and then plants a Kinshasa knee strike into the bridge of Braun’s nose.

Shinsuke’s knee connects perfectly with a sickening crack. The rain stops and the clouds dissipate as Braun goes careening back, knocked unconscious.

“Yes!” Sami emerges from under an archway that remained standing and protected him from the rest of the collapsing building. Everyone is in awe that he is unharmed, even Shinsuke and Cesaro. He yells at them, “I want it! I want it!”

Xavier observes glumly and covers his face with his palm, “We’re going to be in so much trouble.”

Sami stands on Braun’s chest and raises his arms in triumph. Shinsuke takes off the belt and hands it to him. Everyone else observes in confusion.

_Ding-ding-ding!_

The voice of Michael Cole, one of the mouthpieces of the Titan of Pinfall, clarifies for them, “Whoever gets the win, gets the belt, and the belt is staying with the Artist Collective.” He doesn’t sound very sure about what he’s saying, but at least it’s an explanation. “So, Sami Zayn is the new Intercontinental Champion?”

Sami clutches the belt to his chest, hugging it tightly, and his two companions pat him on the back, all yelling with glee as the sun comes out again and the sky clears completely.

“What do we do?” Xavier asks. “Should one of us challenge for the belt or something?”

The other two shrug as Braun begins to return to his senses. Elias quietly watches as the Artist Collective’s celebration is interrupted when Braun grabs onto the back of Sami’s jacket as he gets to his feet. Braun lifts him up high above the other two. Sami kicks his legs and clings to is his belt while squealing.

Braun has only one eye open and a dark bruise is quickly forming across his nose. He sneers and looks at Sami then looks down at Shinsuke and Cesaro.

“You can’t challenge again this soon after losing! No rematch yet! No rematch yet! You’re at the back of the line! You have to earn your shot!” Sami yells at him, reminding him of how things work, or at least how they used to work. He looks down and quickly looks away and closes his eyes. He holds a bit more still, afraid of falling out of his jacket and to his death below.

“I don’t want a rematch. I’m just going to take the belt…by taking you,” Braun tells him. He looks back down at the artist and the cyborg and says to them sternly, “If either of you try anything, I’ll break his neck.”

The two of them look up at Sami and neither moves. They wait for instructions from their leader.

“Ok, ok, this is fine,” Sami sighs. He says again, “This is fine.” He repeats it a few more times, trying to convince himself of how fine the situation is while he dangles treacherously above a very unforgiving looking earth.

“Alright,” Braun seems pleased. “New Day, Elias, let’s go.”

“Pretty sure this is not what Charlotte meant,” Big E sighs.

“Well…he does have the belt…sort of,” Kofi attempts some optimism.

“Where are we going exactly?” Braun then asks and wiggles Sami around in the air until he lets out a little yell, eliciting a jolly chuckle from Braun.


	12. BlissCross Journey To The Forgotten Lands of Nitro: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nikki, Alexa, and Becky stop for provisions, brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Podcast Link!](https://anchor.fm/kingdomofpinfall/episodes/Chapter-12-BlissCross-Journey-To-The-Forgotten-Lands-of-Nitro-Part-2-ek88tv)

The white marble towers of the city appear on the horizon toward the end of the second day of Alexa and Nikki’s trek. This region of the Realm of Raw is not quite a desert but is dry and mostly flat. The Hall of Fame looks like a pearlescent protrusion, jutting up from the expanse of brown like a row of jagged teeth. Alexa fluttering ahead, using her hand as a visor to look toward the city, asks her traveling companions, “Do we want to get what we need and keep moving?”

“No one’s come after Becky’s belts…” Nikki observes with some curiosity. She says it sort of optimistically like she thinks it might be safe for them to stop for more than provisions. They’ve been walking openly down the main road leading to the Hall of Fame for a while.

Becky perks up, hearing her name. She’s walking behind the other two and says, “I’ve beaten everyone already is why. Some people more than once. Most people don’t like to get their asses kicked over and over. Except Charlotte. Charlotte seems like she’s into it, but most people aren’t.”

“You’ve never beaten Asuka,” Nikki reminds her, grinning.

“I’ll beat her too if she ever gets brave enough to show up and challenge me,” the redhead responds dispassionately. “I’m the best, the-”

Alexa cuts her off before she can begin listing the various titles she’s given herself, “Almost everyone is hiding their belts and trying not to lose them because things are weird right now.”

Becky is wearing both Belts of Power. The SmackDown belt is around her waist and the Raw belt is above it, around her chest. It doesn’t look comfortable, but Becky doesn’t seem to care and insists upon doing it even though she has to walk with her elbows sticking out a bit. Her hand has completely healed, and she cleaned up a little when they ran into a creek before entering the plains. She still looks mildly disheveled, but it didn’t deter anyone they met on the road from greeting her with enthusiasm. The commoners barely notice Alexa and Nikki. They stand in the background watching the peasants grab at Becky. Constantly having to stop so people could bask in the presence of the champ slowed them a lot.

“Cowards,” Becky says with a yawn. “I say we rest, start fresh tomorrow. The world won’t end just yet and the Hall of Fame is the last sanctuary this far north. No challenges allowed in those pretty walls.”

Alexa turns and looks at her, flying a few feet off the ground next to Nikki, “I don’t know if the sanctuary rule applies when a Wrestlemania is-”

“Bah. Wrestlemania,” Becky waves her hand. “If the monks and scholars have been infiltrated by the Forces of Evil, I’ll protect ya. No need to fret yer little heads over it. Yer travelin’ with the greatest-”

“How do ya not believe in Wrestlemanias?” Nikki asks her, cutting off her list of titles, and asking the question that has been gnawing at her since Becky joined them. She sounds angry about it, offended.

“I don’t not believe in ‘em,” she groans then tells her, “It’s complicated.” The redhead cringes slightly and begins dragging her feet, “I just don’t think it’s somethin’ we need to be deeply concerned about. They’re gonna keep happenin’ over and over. The Forces of Evil will keep resurfacin’ and the Champions will emerge and defeat them. It’s an endless cycle.”

“Ya don’t know that,” Nikki argues. She turns completely around and stops, coming face to face with Becky. Her teeth are barred, and she looks ready to fight, fists clenched at her sides.

Becky looks Nikki over, and groans again, “It’s how it’s been since the beginning of time. The Forces of Evil will never be completely defeated, but they’ll never win. They just crawl back under their rocks when it’s done. They crawl back out when Pinfall needs a little reminder that they exist. The Wrestlemanias remind us who the heroes are, but everyone forgets again eventually, and on it goes.” She says again, “It’s an endless cycle.”

“Wow, that was a very motivational speech, Becky,” Alexa says sarcastically and grabs onto Nikki’s arm, making her back up out of Becky’s face.

“I’m just sayin’ that it matters but doesn’t really matter in the grander scheme of things.”

“It’s been hundreds of years since the last Wrestlemania,” Nikki reaches out and prods at Becky’s belts while Alexa struggles to keep her at bay, grabbing onto both of her arms. “The Forces of Evil have gotten stronger! They’re doin’ it different! This Wrestlemania is different!” Nikki growls.

Becky puts up her hands in surrender, “Ok, ok. I’m not one to totally squash someone’s hopes and dreams unless their hopes and dreams are winnin’ my belts, so ok. I hope we don’t run into any de-monks in the Hall of Fame.” Alexa and Nikki both look at her blankly and she says, “Demon-monks. De-monks. Monks that have joined the bad guys. Get it?”

Nikki calms down somewhat, letting out a noisy sigh. Becky has disappointed her; Alexa knows this because she’s holding onto her elbow still. The tension fades and they continue quietly for a while with Alexa periodically flitting into the air to make sure no one is coming to attack them.

Becky breaks the silence saying, “I can’t believe ya didn’t laugh at my de-monks joke. It was funny.”

“It was sorta funny,” Nikki agrees reluctantly.

The Irishwoman plows forward and shoulders her way between Alexa and Nikki, throwing an arm across each of their shoulders. “Cheer up, pals,” she tells them, forcing Alexa down to the ground. “Assuming a Wrestlemania is upon us, we are gonna win. Ya’ve got me and I’m the-”

“Please, do not,” Alexa yet again cuts her off before she can start her list.

Becky pouts and says instead, “I’ll help ya get yer belts back from those anime characters when they show up, yeah? Hopefully, they don’t show up before we get to the Hall of Fame because as ya can tell, I am without a weapon. Not that I can’t punch their faces in with my fists, but ya know. Weapons are nice. I like a good polearm meself. How about the two of ya? I know a good shopkeeper up here. He’ll cut ya a deal.”

“I need crossbow bolts,” Alexa says and pats the crossbow hanging from her hip. “Throwing knives too. And vitamins.”

“Ah,” Becky says in a jolly voice. “Vitamins, huh?”

Nikki chimes in, “Fist weapons.”

Becky looks at her and asks, “So yer really into punchin’ people then or more of a claw type?” She is being exceptionally friendly, an attempt to make up for her dour Wrestlemania beliefs.

When the road transforms to well-kept sandstone bricks, Becky releases her grip on them and walks out in front. The city looks warm and welcoming as the sun sets, but it’s still a good walk away. Their walk has been strangely uneventful. Becky realizes that her travels have all been uneventful following her very odd encounter with Liv Morgan. “The Chosen One” she called her and then she said, “He says it isn’t time for you to fall yet.”

Whenever it got too quiet, these words would start echoing in her head, bouncing off of the inside of her skull, getting louder and louder. She wonders if Liv was one of the Forces of Evil or if she was in league with…someone else? Who was “he”? She puts a stop to the echoing, taking off the Raw Women’s Belt of Power so she can walk normally. She chucks it over her left shoulder and says to Alexa and Nikki, “So you two wanna be heroes, huh? Great Champions like in the stories? Made into gods by the Titan of Pinfall?”

Nikki blurts out so quickly that it’s barely comprehensible, “We just wanna save Pinfall from destruction!”

Becky turns and says, “Ah ha!” She points at her, “But what you fail to realize is that we, the Champions, are much more destructive than the Forces of Evil between the good ol’ Wrestlemanias.”

“Oh, are you about to give another motivational speech?” Alexa rolls her eyes.

“I’m merely speakin’ truths. The grim truths of Pinfall,” she says, very dour again.

“What’s true is that Raw sucks the joy out of everyone after a while, doesn’t it?” Alexa laughs a little and elbows Nikki so that she joins in on her joke.

“Aye,” Nikki says quietly. “I remember Becky bein’ a lot more fun.”

Becky can still hear them both as neither is making an actual attempt to whisper. She knows that now they’re just making fun of her. She smirks a little. As she turns back around, she says to them matter-of-factly, “I’ve gotta make sure I’m on the right side with all these sides to choose from. I mean there’s the Messiah, the King of the Ring, Charlotte and her delusions of grandeur.”

Nikki clears her throat nervously as Becky mentions Charlotte, and Alexa subtly pinches her arm. Becky turns just enough to spot the motion out of the corner of her eye. She chuckles to herself as she turns toward the front again. The Queen hasn’t made an appearance during their travels either. She wonders why these two keeping their dealings with her a secret. They think it best, she figures. Charlotte also likely told them to because she also thinks it best. The truth will eventually be revealed – it always is.

Becky speaks up again, “Whose idea was it to go get the Ancient Contracts anyway?”

“Xavier Woods,” Alexa answers her.

“Ah, the New Day,” she’s pleased. “Ya know, after the Ancient Contracts were sealed away in the magic briefcases and hidden in Nitro, no one ever went after them again. None of the Champions seem to have even thought to go get them during any of the subsequent Wrestlemanias – this is a fun fact from the Wrestlemania Archives of Charlotte Flair, by the way. So I guess that does make this Wrestlemania a little different.”

Nikki grins, “See, I told ya.”

“Do either of ya have any idea how to get the Contracts? Where they are?” Becky is quizzing them, seeing if they pass this arbitrary test of hers.

“They’re in a tower,” Nikki answers this time.

Becky turns and gives her a mischievous smile. Her face cast in elongated shadows by the fading sunlight, making her look like she’s about to tell a ghost story around a campfire. “There are several towers. The Contracts are in the tallest one – the aptly, albeit verbosely, named Tower of the Night of Champions. It was the last tower to fall in the Monday Night Wars. Nitro once warred with the Realm of Raw, ya know. Raw won and wiped Nitro from the map. Not the Forces of Evil, us. The Walls of Jericho were built and many of the heroes from the Lands of Nitro and Thunder became Champions in the First Wrestlemania. The Belts were forged, and all of the Contracts were hidden away in that tower, protected by old magic.”

“Why?” Nikki asks her excitedly, enjoying the story very much.

“Why were the Contracts hidden and protected by magic?” Becky asks, amused by Nikki’s genuine fascination. “Because the Titan of Pinfall didn’t want us to know too much. Secrets are important for control, just like this endless cycle of Wrestlemanias.”

“Whoa,” Nikki mutters, eyes wide. “Is that true?”

She shrugs and turns away from them again, “We’ll see once we get ‘em, won’t we?”

Music begins to play, emanating from the space around them, and the Becky chants begin, getting louder and louder as the reach the city and more and more people join in. The center of the Hall of Fame is a huge monastery, flanked by a huge library and a museum. The open-air market is through the main gate where the trio enters. Branching off from the market are all of the established shops, the taverns, the inns.

They are greeted by Samoa Joe in addition to Becky’s ceaseless fanfare. Becky wanders toward the heart of the market and Joe looks toward Alexa and Nikki, welcomingly. He is bedecked in plain red robes and has a white towel draped over his shoulders. He says, “Alexa Bliss, it has been a while since you visited the Realm of Raw. What brings you here?”

“Passing through,” she answers with a slightly mistrustful smile, unsure if he is a friend or a de-monk.

He lowers his voice and looks her straight in the eyes, “Wrestlemania?” She nods and he motions for her to follow him away from the crowded street. More and more people seem to be emerging from nowhere to flock toward Becky. He says to them, “This way.”

“Ya believe it’s comin’?” Nikki asks him, whispering and also following because she doesn’t trust Samoa Joe.

“We knew it was coming before we received word from Charlotte Flair,” he tells her as they pass down a dark alley. He struggles to squeeze between a wall and a dumpster that the two women follow him through with ease, Alexa flying gracefully over it. He adjusts his robes and adds, “There were signs.”

“Why didn’t you respond to her?” Alexa asks him, bothered by this more than she is bothered that they are following him somewhere for an unknown reason.

“We will send word…when the time comes. Our priority is protecting the Hall of Fame,” he says. “The entire history of Pinfall is here, except…” He pauses and looks at them. He looks especially at Nikki, “The Ancient Contracts.”

“Where ya takin’ us?” Nikki asks him, sounding more worried, and feeling unnerved by his last comment and his piercing gaze, directed blatantly at her.

“A shortcut to the monastery is all, Nikki Cross,” he answers politely enough and tucks his hands into his sleeves. “We’ve been expecting you. We expected you much sooner in fact. Bringing Becky Lynch with you was…unexpected.”

“Yeah, well. Becky,” Alexa tells him with annoyance directly mostly at Becky. “How did you know we were coming?”

“I have eyes and ears throughout the realms,” he answers casually as he leads them up the steps to the monastery’s entrance. The simple, but tall wooden doors open for them and the foyer is lined with silver braziers filled with coals that house faint flames. It casts the entryway in eerie shadow, especially with dusk falling outside.

Tending the braziers is Nia Jax. She looks at them as they pass but says nothing. Once they enter another corridor, Alexa speaks again to Joe, landing next to him with her wings vanishing, “So I’ve, like, acquired a crossbow that I was going to ask about in the museum because it sort of looks like…well...” She doesn’t finish what she’s saying and instead holds it out toward him. He slowly raises his eyebrows, but his expression remains solemn and pleasant. “Doesn’t this look like-”

“Yes,” he reaches for it and then pulls his hand away before his fingers come into contact with it. He again tucks his hands into his sleeves. He looks at the weapon quietly for a time, “Where did you find it?”

“Liv Morgan had it,” Alexa answers and Nikki looks from her to Joe, studying them both carefully. Alexa trusts Joe, for the most part.

“Liv Morgan,” he repeats, his voice higher and full of surprise. “That is a legendary crossbow - the Hulkamaniac. It was lost through a Heelgate by Hulk Hogan. We believed it to be gone forever, but it seems…it is not.” Joe stares at it for several seconds after he finishes speaking then he quickly turns and continues his walk down the corridor, saying nothing more about it. He leads them into a small, private library – one of the many libraries of the monastery. The tomes in the libraries of the monastery are not available to the plebeian masses like those of the public library of the Hall of Fame.

The shelves of books stretch from floor to ceiling and rectangular tables are arranged in rows on either side of the room. Samoa Joe takes them to a table at the farthest side where there is a stack of books, several scrolls, and a family-sized bag of potato chips.

“Why’d ya bring us here?” Nikki questions loudly. She cowers when her voice echoes in the huge, empty room. Joe glowers at her and she winces as apologetically as she can manage.

“I’ve brought you here to give you a gift to help you on your journey, of course,” he looks at her sternly before returning to the desk. He speaks while looking down and moving several scrolls aside. “I also want you to tell the Queen that we have always and will always protect Pinfall. Will you do that, Alexa Bliss?”

Alexa nods, “Yeah, I guess so, brother.”

Joe looks up slowly and his eyes narrow. He watches her for a moment and then says, “How long has that crossbow been in your possession?”

“A day,” she answers. “More or less.”

He looks back down at the mess on the desk. He sighs, “The Hulkamaniac hasn’t been seen in thousands of years. Not even I know what powers it imbues upon the one that wields it.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Nikki tells him, enthusiastically.

“Yes, well,” he clears his throat barely understanding her. “I have been researching and attempting to locate other legendary artifacts and I believe one of them is with the Ancient Contracts if you care to look for it while you’re there.” He hands a scroll to Alexa. He then looks at Nikki, expressionlessly. He doesn’t seem fond of her, but not overtly disdainful. He passes her the bag of potato chips and turns his back to both of them. He clasps his hands behind him and says, “You may go now. Becky Lynch is likely causing a stir in the marketplace and we would appreciate it if you gathered her and put her out of sight for the evening.”

“Thank you, brother,” Alexa says sincerely.

On their way out they pass by Nia again. This time she is sweeping. She stops, looks at them, and then goes back to sweeping once they’ve passed. Neither of them speaks until they’re on the steps of the monastery and Nikki is the first. She holds tightly onto the peace offering Joe gave her and asks, “Why did you keep calling him brother?”

“Huh?” Alexa carefully tucks the scroll into her pack and says, “Let’s go find Becky, get weapons, and a place to sleep.”

Before they reach the crowded and colorfully illuminated market, they’re intercepted by three figures in long hooded robes. The shorter of the three, who is standing in the front whispers, “Hey. Alexa. It’s me. AJ.”

“Um…” She responds.

“Styles,” he clarifies. “AJ Styles. These goons behind me are Anderson and Gallows - if you couldn’t tell.” He hitches his thumb over his shoulder.

“What’s goin’ on?” Nikki is perplexed and frustrated by the frequent interruptions and all of these men that keep wanting to block their path and say things and lead them places.

“No, I know who you are. What do you want?” Alexa asks them.

“To warn you,” he whispers very quietly. “Don’t trust the monks.”

“Ok, cool,” she pats him on the shoulder and then walks past them, followed by Nikki who shoves the bag of potato chips into his hands as she passes. Nikki looks back several times and sees them still milling around in the street. They apparently can’t decide where they want to go for dinner from what she can tell as their voices fade away.

A moment later they find Becky carrying an armful of no less than seventeen different polearms. She greets them, struggling to look around the bundle. She says excitedly, “Look! Weapons! I haven’t picked one out yet!”


End file.
